May 5Continuing Our Journey to Open Data with the Urban Data CatalogIn September 2019, Urban announced the public launch of the Urban Data Catalog, a web-based data repository powered by the open-source DKAN data platform. The data catalog has become crucial to furthering Urban’s mission by offering high-value datasets to facilitate research by analysts who can use our data to create…Data Catalog7 min read
Apr 14How We Designed a User-Friendly Web Data ConnectorThe Urban Institute’s Education Data Portal contains a vast amount of information and pulls data from varied sources, features that offer immense potential to our users but can also be extremely overwhelming. …Tableau4 min read
Mar 25Choosing the Right OCR Service for Extracting Text DataOptical character recognition, or OCR, is a key tool for people who want to build or collect text data. OCR uses machine learning to extract words and lines of text from scans and images, which can then be used to perform quantitative text analysis or natural language processing. …Ocr8 min read
Mar 3How can data communicators lead inclusivity efforts for visualizations?Following the June 2021 release of our Do No Harm Guide on how to take an equitable and inclusive approach to data communication, my coauthor Alice Feng and I have presented our work at numerous panels, conferences, and other engagements, where we’ve been asked thought-provoking questions. I have compiled some…Data Visualization7 min read
Feb 3How Data4Kids Helps Students Log on to LearnWhen the COVID-19 pandemic first shut down in-person learning, we knew education wouldn’t be the same. How could kids — especially younger kids in elementary schools — learn and socialize if they weren’t in a real classroom? In late 2021, we worked with a team of people from various groups…5 min read
Jan 14Three Lessons for Measuring Rural StrengthsHow do we describe rural America based on its strengths? Instead of focusing on traditional, deficit-based measures like poverty, population loss, and unemployment, Urban researchers wanted to consider the factors that create high quality of life in small communities and towns. But what could these shared assets between diverse communities…6 min read
Dec 21, 2021Data@Urban’s Top 5 Posts of 20211. Graphing food insecurity in the United States Although researchers have developed an alternate method for comparing food insufficiency datasets from before and after the pandemic, three graphing tactics could more effectively visualize the sector's methodological challenges around missing data and comparability. 2. Quality checking to ensure data are ready…2 min read
Dec 16, 2021Analyzing the Quality of 2020 Census: Understanding the US Population PuzzleEvery 10 years, the US Census Bureau creates a picture of the US population. With this information, Congress apportions the 435 congressional seats, allocates the $1.5 trillion federal budget, redraws voting lines, and more. Although the Census Bureau’s goal is to take a snapshot of the population on April 1…Census5 min read
Dec 15, 2021Creating Better, More Informative Map Legends in RFor many geography-oriented projects, maps have become the default vehicle for data visualization. But maps aren’t always the best way to visualize geographic data. Yes, they are familiar to people and have become easier to create, but they can also hide important takeaways. …6 min read
Nov 18, 2021Introducing the Spatial Equity Data Tool Version 2About one year ago, we launched the Spatial Equity Data Tool to respond to demand from city officials and local practitioners for tools that would enable them to more easily incorporate equity into decisionmaking. At a high level, the tool allows users to upload their own point-level data (e.g., …Mapping7 min read
