Case Studies

Streamlining Data Access with the Real-Time Crime Index’s New Website

Challenge

The Real-Time Crime Index (RTCI) is a project of AH Datalytics and supported by Arnold Ventures, which enables users to see national crime trends based on data from hundreds of agencies nationwide. Since national crime statistics often lag by up to two years, RTCI’s data samples allow for faster understanding and visualization of national crime trends.

The RTCI team had the data but needed a brand identity and a user-friendly site to house their work and allow agencies and programs to submit data for the project. Online Optimism came on board to create a streamlined, dynamic website and a trustworthy brand to support RTCI’s mission.

Branding Evolution

We first set out to design the logo during a brand brainstorming session with the RTCI team. We wanted to create a logo that communicated the ideas of being collaborative, functional, technological, efficient, adaptable, and clean. Online Optimism’s design team then made several initial proposals for the logo utilizing different directions in style and color. In a series of feedback sessions, we honed the design, allowing the team to mix and match features they liked best from the original logo proposals. Our final logo used the condensed version of the Roboto font, which is familiar in the app user interfaces. For color, we chose a deep teal that communicated accuracy and trust, complemented by an orange and blue, which were both a nod to colors found in spreadsheets.

We included a Brand Kit with the final logo, with guidelines for using it consistently and variations of the logo for different situations. We created versions of the logo with both the full name and acronym. The Brand Kit also contains a guide outlining how to use pairings of the brand colors that meet WCAG accessibility guidelines.

Real-Time Data Views

Given the dynamic nature of the RTCI team’s database, we wanted to treat their GitHub repository as their single source of truth and avoid creating unnecessary workflows like uploading exported files to the website. Instead, we embedded select GitHub.io pages directly into the website, responsively framing the content to allow the site to always display the latest version of the data. No matter how often the GitHub content was updated, the site would match — all without any extra steps required of the RTCI team.

Responsive views of RTCI's data submission page.

Streamlined User Submissions

In addition to RTCI’s newsletter signup and contact forms, Online Optimism created a data submission form to allow agencies and programs to send their data to the RTCI team for inclusion in their database. Using a straightforward form with specific allowed file uploads, the RTCI team collected agency crime data in a user-friendly way, supported by strong spam protection.