Modernization of the UNdata Portal
Problem: The UNdata Portal is a critical platform that shares data produced by the United Nations system and national statistical systems. Since its launch in 2005, the data landscape has changed, and to meet the needs of a broader community of users, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) engaged Open Data Watch and the Center for Open Data Enterprise (CODE) to initiate the UNdata modernization process.
Solution: I supported an initial analysis of stakeholder needs, developed a roadmap, and collaborated on the design of a live website mock-up to support resource mobilization efforts that ultimately resulted in an additional grant of 4 million USD from Google.
Role: Project Manager for Open Data Watch, coordinating with project leads from CODE and incorporating direction and inputs from senior-level colleagues across all organizations.
Time: September 2021 to April 2022.
Client: United Nations Statistics Division.
User Research
To cultivate support for the modernization of the UNdata portal and understand the needs of key stakeholders, we conducted an initial set of meetings with an Inter-Agency Expert Group.
Engaging with the Inter-Agency Expert Group
This group included members of the Committee of the Chief Statisticians of the United Nations System, members of the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities, representatives of national statistical systems and other stakeholders.
Meeting objectives:
Cultivate the support of the Inter-Agency Expert Group for the modernization
Gathered inputs on key questions regarding current and emerging users, data sources, technical functionalities, governance approaches, and overall opportunities and challenges.
Based on these inputs, a colleague in our partnering organization, CODE, developed an initial user needs and requirements analysis report. The report summarized three broad themes:
The overall look and feel of UNdata are outdated, and its design needs to be upgraded to improve the portal’s user experience and utility.
UNdata’s back-end functionality, architecture, and governance need to be overhauled to align the portal with the vision of the UNSC and SG’s Data Strategy.
User needs and expectations have changed significantly since UNdata’s inception, additional user research is needed to understand and balance between specialized and general users.
Advocating for additional user research
Despite the emphasis that the members of the Inter-Agency Expert Group placed on the need for more user research, the limited budget for this work made it a challenge to prioritize in concrete terms beyond their initial inputs regarding the need for front-end and back-end improvements.
As I developed a roadmap based on rough cost estimates, I made the case for including additional user research as part of the first stage of the modernization of the UNdata portal and continued to advocate for this on multiple occasions.
Ultimately, the UNSD was able to bring on Deloitte to conduct an in-depth user analysis as a donation to the work.
Planning
I built on the the Inter-Agency Expert Group inputs and conducted additional research to develop a cost estimate and a preliminary roadmap to inform the modernization work and demonstrate the cost-effective potential of a modernized UNdata portal.
Calculating development costs
Estimating back-end development costs: I reached out to the Statistical Information System Collaboration Community (SIS-CC) and interviewed a representatives to explore the the potential use of .Stat as a an open source data platform. It serves as the foundation for the OECD, UNICEF, ILO data portals and other international agencies and we determined that it had the potential to allow for a more modular, decentralized, and service-oriented data sharing and dissemination workflow.
Estimating front-end development costs: I obtained estimates from web development companies that specialize in working with international development agencies. The high estimate was set by Forum One as U.S. based company that had expertise in proposing and developing websites based on their user research. The low estimate was set by Trigyn as a company based in India that had implemented a clear, existing vision for the SDG Global Database.
Developing a roadmap
We developed in-depth reports covering the rough order of magnitude cost estimates and the roadmap, outlining the stages of the project and identifying which activities could be conducted with existing funds, which would require immediate fundraising, and what could be saved for a future phase of the work.
Outlining the roadmap and cost estimate for an audience of potential donors:
Creating fundraising strategy and materials
I created a fundraising strategy that included a landscape analysis that identified three donor groups, including national governments, foundations, and private sector companies. Within these groups, I identified specific countries and organizations that we wanted to prioritize based on inputs from UNSD colleagues.
To facilitate outreach to the donor groups, we developed a 2-pager for each one as well as a few additional for key potential donors. Below is an example of one of these two-pagers that we developed for bilateral donors.
Design
To create a foundational vision to inform future design efforts and demonstrate progress and potential to donors, we partnered with web development team from Trigyn to create a live mock-up of the UNData Portal.
Informing live mock-ups
To inform the initial design of the mock-ups, I shared examples that the UNSD wanted the site to emulate. The SDG Global Database was a key example as well as the Pacific Data Hub.
Based on inputs, Trigyn developed a set of pages that would best demonstrate the potential of a modernized UNdata portal: landing page, search results page, and user community page.
Below are a set of mock-ups that show the initial evolution of the landing page based on feedback to place more emphasis on specific data topics highlighting key indicators.
When UNSD did not feel the mock-ups quite captured their feedback, I supported the communication with Trigyn by translating feedback into specific recommendations.
I also created an adjusted mock-up of the home page using Adobe Illustrator to better convey the vision that our clients had in mind.
Through an iterative and collaborative process, Trigyn arrived at this final set of mock-ups:
