How safe is my neighborhood?
A user persona of this app is someone who is broad-minded, curious about Chicago communities (may or may not be a Chicagoan currently), and a frequent reader of USA Today and Yahoo! News. An information dashboard based on the Chicago Police Department incident reports over the years, this app will help her explore and answer the following "questions":
- What is the safety ranking of my community area?
- How safe is my community as compared to another community area of my interest, and/or its immediate neighbors?
- How is the overall safety situation in Chicago by community area, as defined by the index crimes as well as quality-of-life crimes? And where is my community area in this big picture?
- Are there any patterns in these crimes? For example, are there more violent crimes during certain months of the year than others? Are property crime rates higher in areas traversed by major streets? etc.?
Last but not least, I"m curious to get a feel for the challenges and opportunities of presenting such information to tablet and mobile users.