12-05, 16:00–16:30 (UTC), General Track
In partnership with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Datacove developed a bespoke Shiny dashboard designed to enhance decision-making in the areas of Health and Wellbeing, Nature, and Sustainability (HWNS). This presentation explores three key aspects: project and data management, customisation, and usability enhancements in R.
The project began with careful project and data management, ensuring alignment with government needs by connecting to APIs and consolidating HWNS data. In the second phase, the dashboard was seamlessly integrated into existing platforms using custom CSS and JavaScript to maintain visual consistency. Lastly, user-friendly design principles and interactive tools like Leaflet and Highcharts were employed to make the dashboard accessible to all users, regardless of their data literacy, promoting informed and localised decision-making. This collaboration with DEFRA sets a foundation for future policy innovations within the HWNS sector.
Shiny Policies: Dashboards to Aid British Government Decisions
In collaboration with the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Datacove developed a bespoke Shiny dashboard for informed government decision-making, covering Health and Wellbeing, Nature, and Sustainability (HWNS). This presentation will outline three major topics: project and data management, our approach to customisation, and the route taken to enhance usability.
The first phase involved meticulous project and data management to establish clear expectations. By engaging with Government stakeholders, we ensured that the envisioned product met their specific needs and provided a tangible preview of the dashboard's functionality and design. We connected to government APIs and used R to extract, process, and transform HWNS data, bringing this information into one place for localised decision-making.
In the second phase, we focused on customisation to ensure seamless integration with their existing webpage. Using the brand guidelines and custom CSS/JavaScript, we ensured that the dashboard had the same look and feel as other products built outside of Shiny. This step was crucial in maintaining a cohesive user experience by complementing their established digital ecosystem. Thus, making it easy to access and increasing the likelihood of use.
In the third phase, we emphasised making the dashboard accessible to all, regardless of data literacy. We implemented user-friendly design principles, pre-calculated dynamic stats, and intuitive navigation. For example, we built interactive charts using libraries such as Leaflet and Highcharts, this ensured that comparisons were clear and easy to dynamically explore.
Throughout the project, we adopted best practices in user-centred design, data interpretation and iterative testing by employing tools in R Shiny. These practices not only ensured the final product was user-friendly for all skill-levels, but also provided insights into how we can improve our approach in future iterations. Overall, our collaboration with DEFRA has laid the groundwork for more accessible and informed policy-making processes in the HWNS department.
No previous knowledge expected
Data Scientist at Datacove. Co-organiser of EARL Conference. Co-host of Manchester, Brighton, London and Bristol R User Groups.
Jeremy is an experienced data, analytics and insight professional of 20 years, specialising in customer analytics, reporting automation, machine learning and data visualisation - with a passion in developing sophisticated data strategies and inspiring best in class analytics solutions, underpinned by the R environment. He has been coding in R since day one of his career and combines it with his love of community building and public speaking to share applications and motivate others to develop into coding specialists, by running community user groups across the UK, alongside EARL, the UK's annual premier R (and Python) conference.