Theses Master's

Evaluating Dashboards To Enhance Community Engagement For Street Trees

Hung, HaoChe

This capstone project aims to create a framework for measuring the effectiveness of civic data dashboards in promoting community engagement. To develop this framework, the project synthesizes 33 studies related to dashboards that employ different methodologies to evaluate their performance. The resulting evaluation matrix considers the relationship between methodology choices and effectiveness objectives, which vary depending on dashboard categories and their intended purposes.

The case study chapter illustrates how the evaluation matrix can be applied to explore the most appropriate methods for studying dashboard effectiveness across different objectives, from data quality to building capacity. The chapter also highlights the different approaches used by three dashboard cases to achieve community engagement under their own contexts.

Using previous research, the wireframe design creates a functional prototype of a street tree dashboard that aims to increase public awareness and encourage community participation in tree care and planting. The street tree dashboard prototype presents an accessible interface that connects local neighborhoods with the government service delivery process and inspires local residents to take action.

In summary, the goal of this project is to enhance community engagement by providing BetaNYC with an evaluation tool to assess the effectiveness of current dashboards based on their objectives and design new dashboards that better serve local communities. Through the evaluation matrix and case studies, this project provides a comprehensive guide for designing and evaluating civic data dashboards that promote community engagement.

Geographic Areas

Files

This item is currently under embargo. It will be available starting 2025-06-26.

More About This Work

Academic Units
Urban Planning
Thesis Advisors
Meisterlin, Leah M.
Degree
M.S., Columbia University
Published Here
August 2, 2023