Sharing information — Ausgrid’s Neighbourhood works map

[Gruden]

Driven by a desire to share a wealth of data with their customers, Ausgrid asked Gruden to work with them to design and build an online information tool that makes information about various neighbourhood works accessible to the public. Members of the public, developers and researchers can now access information divided by 39 Local Government Areas (LGA) within Ausgrid’s network. *The information covers previously unavailable data such as quarterly residential electricity use, solar power, and streetlight repairs.



Involving collaboration between various teams within Ausgrid, the aim of the Google Maps based application is to showcase the breadth and detail of information about the biggest electricity distribution network in the country. The challenge for Gruden was to create an application that would illustrate all the data available, formatted to compare against different quarters, in an easy to use and uncluttered interface. The tool should highlight the data available and allow its audience to easily interpret the information presented.

At the opening stage of the project, one of the key issues to address was how the data should be presented to the user in the simplest fashion that would allow them to digest all the information available for their Local Government Area, but also switch between data sets and different quarters for comparison. By presenting familiar and simple interfaces, including using the familiar Google Map interface and designing simple graph views, we were able to present the data in a fashion that carried the ethos of the whole project: transparency and simplicity. In this case, simplicity was definitely the best solution.



In addition, developers or interested parties can download a spreadsheet containing the quarterly data behind the map, made available without use restrictions. This allows deeper analysis of the information, comparison between different regions, and republication in different formats and contexts.

Corporate Communications Manager Anthony O’Brien adds:

It gives the entire community a view on many layers of information in their local neighbourhood. We hope that people who access it will find out more about what’s going on in their local area and find ways to use it that suits them.

Gruden built and integrated the tool into Ausgrid’s Sitecore CMS, allowing Ausgrid to provide additional information and supporting links around the data sets and topics, further enhancing the user experience and really supporting the information tool.

Having performed the initial import of data for launch, during the secondary phase of the build we also designed and built a custom upload interface that allows Ausgrid to upload a spreadsheet containing new quarterly data as it becomes available — ensuring the information tool management becomes internally self-sufficient, and the tool itself remains relevant.

As an agency it was exciting to be part of such a pioneering initiative by a client such as Ausgrid, and with the end result gaining great positive feedback at launch, we’re looking forward to seeing how the Neighbourhood Works tool is picked up and integrated into the communities it serves. As the online audience becomes further educated on how to access information, and businesses continue to adapt to the mentality of transparency, we look forward to seeing how others tackle these issues.

Check out the Neighbourhood works map.



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