Design Document: Comparison Tool MVP

Overview

The comparison tool will leverage our database API to allow users to query information from multiple budgets at once. The interface will provide visualization tools that present the queried data in an appropriate and useful format.

Data dimensionality

For simplicity of both user experience and implementation, we will focus on these primary views of Oakland city budget data:

• Spending

  • Total
  • Total grouped by Department
  • Total grouped by Account Code or Account Category (TBD based on some additional data analysis)

• Revenue

  • TBD

Data relevance

To maximize this tool's usefulness for the public debate portion of the budget process (Spring 2017), we will prioritize a feature that allows users to compare the newly proposed Mayor's Budget to previous years' adopted budgets.

We will also implement an easy way for users to filter out non-discretionary spending (i.e., non-General Fund expenditures), as the General Fund is the main subject of debate and amendment during the City Council's budget adoption process.