Comments on Latest Version esp. Home Page

[edring]

1 - The map needs to have all four options in the upper right, not just three. If "Counties" is not selected, then the county lines should not show on the map.

2 - The scroll-over function is slow and requires more precision than the average user may be comfortable with. Try to improve that if possible.

3 - When I have only "Cities" selected (checked), I can still scroll over a dot that is for, for example, "Mountain View Fire Protection District." The only dots that should show when "Cities" are checked are dots for cities, ditto for School Districts and special districts.

4 - It isn't a bad idea to color code the dots, but an overly elaborate scheme will just confuse the viewer. For example, it is not necessary for the special districts to have various colors depending on what they are. It can simply be, for example, city dots = red, school district dots = light blue, special district dots = dark purple. Whatever. Only three colors that are obviously distinct and in contrast to each other. Then those dots should show opposite the names on the box in the upper right.

5 - The county lines should render in grey, not red.

6 - I am reluctant to include dots for records where there is no data. If possible, maybe those dots can be hollow circles instead of filled in.

7 - When you have your cursor over the map and spin the dial on your mouse, the map should enlarge or shrink.

8 - It would be good to not have the map capable of being shrunk more than the default size where California's borders fill the area.

9 - Much as I wish the US would adopt the metric system, I think the map scale should be in miles, not kilometers. (NOTE FROM MARC: Defaulting to miles is not currently supported by the Google Maps API. See https://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/issues/detail?id=7173. If the user clicks on the scale it will automatically change to miles).

10 - I don't know where "4483 Governments" comes from. I would delete that.

11 - When you go to a record, it is not possible to easily find your way back to the home page map. The home page map is the centerpiece of this project. It is not an afterthought. I would put "return to main map" as a link just to the right of the "search" link in the upper right.

12 - On the "employee compensation" page, the 2nd graph has a bar that is twice as thick as the 1st graph. This is awkward. The vertical bar, even though there is only one, should be the same thickness as the two vertical bars in the graph above it.

13 - ref. #12; also, the explanatory writing above, below, and to the right side of the bar graphs is too small. Nobody can read it. It needs to be about 50% larger. Spacing the graphs further apart vertically should accommodate this increase in the size of the captions.

14 - Ditto for the writing on all of the graphs. The "Financial Health" graphs have writing that is too small to be easily read by anyone over 40.

15 - The mask for "Number of Full Time Employees" on the "Employee Compensation" page is missing a comma for numbers four digits and beyond.

16 - I like the blue dot that indicates a scroll over explanation. We should have more of those, and we will. But I think they are too small. They should be 50% larger in diameter so the little "i" can be seen as a little "i". And why an "i"? Why not a "?" Wouldn't that be more logical.

17 - I love the graphs on the "Financial Statements" page. But again the writing needs to be 50% larger. The circles themselves can be 50% larger in diameter and they would still fit on that page.

18 - Are we going to have rankings on the "Financial Health" tab? That would be good if we did.

19 - The "Transparent California link is excellent, but where possible (in some cases it is not possible), there should ALSO be a link the the Transparent California pension listing for any given city or county or school district or special district.

20 - Is it possible to have a link to the State Controller's page for each entity? That would be very useful to our viewers and further enhance the value of this resource.

21 - What are we doing to ensure this is going to work on cell phones and i-pads? We get 50% of our viewers from mobile devices. There are ways to make these pages mobile friendly. We need to be sure we do that.

22 - The size of the map on the home page is too small. The outer dimensions of the map should be 50% larger on each side.

23 - We discussed having a consolidated data, i.e., a five tab profile record for "All Cities," "All Counties," etc. While it would not be possible to get all records, or render all graphs (the pie charts would not work, for example), there would be some terrific information we could present; maybe on a reduced set of tabs. The median pay and benefits, for example, would be quite interesting.

24 - Will we ever be able to isolate the pay and benefit medians for public safety? Just wondering.

There will be more. But I think all of these are reasonable to be part of version 1.0. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to work thoughtfully to continue to refine the home page.

[joffemd]

Note to developers: I will review this input early next week and begin to prioritize it. We should not be developing or committing anything related to this feedback on Friday, 18 July. We are limiting changes ahead of a demo this weekend.

[joffemd]

Sibers: Please work on items 2-5, 21 and 22. I realize that 21 will take some time, but assume that some of the others will be relatively easy.

[joffemd]

This should not be closed. I have not analyzed and assigned all the sub-issues yet.

[bhattkrishna19]

I had not closed this issue. I dnt know how this got closed with my commit.