Capitol Words: A Dashboard for Exploring Congressional Records

An interactive dashboard that empowers users to search and understand the context of political discussions, promoting civic engagement and transparency.

The Challenge
ProPublica and Chartbeat aimed to create a tool that empowers the public to access and understand congressional discourse. The goal was to design a web-based solution where users could search for specific keywords and view which members of Congress were discussing these topics and in what context.

The Solution
I led the design of an interactive dashboard that allowed users to easily search for and filter congressional records. The tool visualized the conversations around specific topics, showing the user which members of Congress were discussing them and offering context to those discussions. This made complex political information more accessible and transparent to the public.

The Outcome
The project resulted in a user-friendly tool that promoted civic engagement by giving users deeper insights into congressional activity. It provided ProPublica with an innovative way to drive public awareness around political issues, and helped increase transparency in governmental communications.

My Role
As Lead Product Designer, I was responsible for:

• Designing the overall user experience of the dashboard.

• Collaborating with ProPublica and Chartbeat to ensure the product aligned with both journalistic and technical goals.

• Creating an intuitive interface that made searching and understanding congressional records easy for the public.

Project Background

ProPublica, known for its investigative journalism, partnered with Chartbeat to develop a tool that would allow the public to see what members of Congress are talking about in real-time. With vast quantities of public congressional records available, the challenge was making this information easy to search, understand, and explore.

The vision was to create a tool that helped citizens stay informed on the key issues their representatives were discussing, with a focus on clarity, transparency, and usability. By allowing users to search for specific terms and see which politicians were discussing them, the tool bridged the gap between political activity and public engagement.

Design Approach

My design approach focused on simplifying complex data for a broad audience. We needed to ensure the dashboard could handle large amounts of information but still offer a streamlined, intuitive user experience.
To address this, I:

• Developed clear visual representations of search results, showing which members of Congress were discussing specific terms and in what context.

• Designed record views that allowed users to dig deeper into individual discussions and understand the surrounding context.

• Worked closely with developers to ensure the interface was responsive, fast, and capable of handling real-time data from congressional records.

Core Design Principles

• Simplicity: The dashboard needed to present vast amounts of political data in a way that was easy for the average user to understand.

• Transparency: We aimed to highlight the context behind what Congress members were saying, so users could see both the topic and how it was being framed.

• Engagement: The tool had to be interactive and engaging, encouraging users to explore and stay informed on key political discussions.

Iterative Development

Throughout the development process, we worked in close collaboration with both ProPublica’s investigative journalists and Chartbeat’s technical team. The iterative design process included frequent feedback loops, allowing us to refine the user experience and ensure it met the needs of both the public and the journalists using the tool.

We conducted usability testing with a variety of user groups to ensure the dashboard was easy to navigate. Based on feedback, we continuously improved the search functionality, ensuring users could quickly find relevant discussions and understand the context in which they were being mentioned.

Results

The Chartbeat + ProPublica dashboard successfully increased public access to congressional records, making it easier for citizens to track political conversations and hold their representatives accountable. The tool promoted greater civic engagement, offering a transparent view into the topics being discussed in Congress. By allowing users to search and explore specific terms, it fostered a deeper understanding of how key issues were being addressed in the political sphere, driving higher engagement with ProPublica’s content and advancing their mission of transparency in journalism.