Making features like our Bridge Tracker easier to use
Posted by Phil Zepeda on Thursday, February 14, 2008 3:16 PM PT
About a week and a half ago we published an investigative
report on bridge inspections. I was part of the team that worked on the related
Bridge Tracker, an interactive map tied to a database that provides specific information on bridges that you would cross along any given route within the continental U.S. For you geeks out there, we had a proxy specially built to pass info from Virtual Earth to MapPoint, which contained a bridge database that we got from the government through a FOIA request. And yes, it’s all harder than it sounds.
Three months of blood, sweat and tears went into this project.
I realize that’s a long time, especially in the news business, but we’re still
learning how to do this kind of reporting effectively and efficiently. We’re
still learning how programmers and reporters (two very different breeds) can
work together to create compelling journalism.
Anyway, we think the Bridge Tracker is useful (of course!),
but what really matters is what you thought of it. Some users said they
couldn’t figure out how to use it, so we’ve made some improvements to the
interface since it published.
Usability aside, though, let’s focus on the actual features
of the map, like the “Route options” tab. Here, you can filter bridges by
inspection schedule or status. Was this helpful? Did you use this tab? Did you
even notice it?
A lot of work goes into these things and we often wonder
whether it’s worth it — or how to do it better.
So what if we built a Bridge Tracker v2.0? What new features
would you like to see? What would you change, and what would you get rid of?
