Table 2. Modifications to OCOI—race dashboard based on end-user feedback.
| Modification | Rationale |
|---|---|
| Content | |
| •Creation of four categories for each race/ethnic group. These were 0 to 25, 25 to 50, 50 to 75, and >75% | Using quantiles to create categories for race/ethnic group gave rise to very skewed categories. Therefore, the categories requested by the end-user were created |
| •Switch from septile to quartile groups of the OCOI score to use in the state-level heat map | Using septile groups gave rise to too many categories and was visually busy. It was therefore decided that the quartile distribution was easier for interpretation |
| •Scatterplot of OCOI and its domain scores with the X-axis showing the OCOI scores and the Y-axis showing the frequency of the SDoH factor | The scatterplot allows the end users to see the scores for all census tracts at a glance. Each census tract is represented as a circle, which when selected highlights the census tract on the map |
| •Discrete categories represented as tiles showing 16 combinations of the four OCOI categories and the four SDoH factors and the number of census tracts with each combination | End users can at a glance see how many tracts have low opportunity and how many have high opportunity based on the race/ethnic distribution of the census tract |
| Function | |
| •Selection of county results by filtering dashboard content to only the census tracts within that county | This helped the end users specifically assess the census tracts within a county of interest |
| •Selection of neighborhood results by filtering dashboard content to census tracts within a city, neighborhood, or township | This helped end users find census tracts by specifying geographies that were more familiar to them such as the neighborhood, city, township, or ZIP codes |
| •Provide an information icon by each component to help the end user understand it | Provide end users with a conveniently located icon to quickly understand what the information a specific component can provide them, such as the source of the data |
| •Display street and highway patterns | Allow end users to get a better sense of the communities present within a census tract by locating them using streets and highways |
| Aesthetics | |
| •Use a divergent color scheme for the heat map | Attempts to preserve the color scheme used on the main dashboard proved inefficient because the original dashboard used three colors and the need was for four colors in the OCOI dashboard with other area-level indicators. We used shades of blue, orange, purple, and green. We avoided using certain shades of red and green to minimize the probability that end users would have trouble perceiving the colors |
| •Linking the color-coded tiles and the circles on the scatter plot | End users can select any combination of OCOI and area-level indicator of interest. This selection unselects all other census tracts from the scatter plot and at the same time highlights the census tracts in that particular category on the map. Alternatively, users can select any circle on the scatterplot and the selected tract is highlighted on the map and the color-coded tile that it corresponds to is highlighted as well |
Abbreviations: OCOI, Ohio Children's Opportunity Index; SDoH, social determinants of health.