CSY-011. A concise weekly report that shows progress toward goals for a youth mentorship program.

PROJECT COMPLETED: May 2019

SAYA Mentor Summary Reports | Report Design by David White

THE STORY OF THIS PROJECT

STAKEHOLDER’S PROBLEM: “Our team needs timely, relevant and straight-to-the-point reports that contain actionable information.”

South Asian Youth Action (SAYA) is a 501(c)3 youth development organization based in Queens, NY. SAYA’s mission is to foster a strong sense of belonging in youth and provide them with tools to thrive academically, professionally and personally. It currently serves more than 1,500 kindergarten through college-aged youths throughout the City of New York.

As part of NYC’s Community Schools Initiative, SAYA partnered with Richmond Hill High School to operate a mentorship program designed to target at-risk students to improve their school attendance and prevent dropouts. Each week, SAYA’s program administrators and the school’s staff members who were serving as mentors, met to review student data and collaborate on ways they could better support the students enrolled in the mentorship program.

When I first began attending the weekly team meetings, I saw that each week, mentors were being presented with a large amount of data delivered in a spreadsheet format. The data was very dense and difficult to read. Within this huge sea of data, it was rather difficult for each mentor to locate relevant information on the mentees in their individual caseload. To solve this problem, I designed and produced concise, individualized weekly data reports for each mentor working in the SAYA intervention program.

Work Process:

Here’s the design process I used to complete this project—

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Case Study 011. South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!) Mentor Summaries: Step 1
CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!)
CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!)

Step 1 - Discovery

My very first step was to meet with the mentors so I could gain an understanding of exactly what they needed from a weekly data report. I learned that much of the information they were receiving was not relevant and furthermore, the information they actually did need was buried deep inside a mountain of other data. I began to strategize a way to cull the data and bring the most pertinent information to the surface.

CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!)
Case Study 011. South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!) Mentor Summaries: Step 2
CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!)
CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!)

Step 2 - Sketch

As I began to work with the data, the most pertinent data points began to rise to the surface. I set up the report to highlight that information. I wanted each mentor to be able to digest all of the most important information about their mentees at a glance.

CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!)
Case Study 011. South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!) Mentor Summaries: Step 3
CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), Tableau, Adobe Acrobat
CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), Tableau, Adobe Acrobat

Step 3 - Prep Data

I identified the sources of information needed to make the reports and I began collecting the raw data. Since this was a report that would have to be updated on a weekly basis, I made sure to organize the data files in such a way that they could be updated quickly. I had to ensure that all of the columns for each category of data would line up exactly, every time.

CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), Tableau, Adobe Acrobat
Case Study 011. South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!) Mentor Summaries: Step 4
CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!)
CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!)

Step 4 - Build

To create the reports, I used Tableau to merge the various component data sources and present the consolidated information a concise, easily digestible report.

CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!)
Case Study 011. South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!) Mentor Summaries: Step 5
CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), Tableau
CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), Tableau

Step 5 - Publish

Having finished the design and build out process, I moved on to producing the individualized reports. At each team meeting, I printed out a hard copy report for each mentor. The entire report fit on a single sheet of paper (printed front and back). I also emailed them a PDF soft copy. All of the information on each mentor’s report was specific to the mentees in their own caseload. Throughout the school day, the mentors held one-on-one meetings with their mentees. During these meetings, mentors often referred directly to to the printed reports I had produced for them. The mentors told me that the new reports were very helpful to them in communicating with their mentees and keeping them focused on their goals.

CSY-011, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), Tableau

Final Results:

 
case studies, reports & presentationsDavid WhiteSouth Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), report design, Tableau, report

3. Work Samples - Content | Work samples of data visualizations, data dashboards, websites, infographics, publication-quality reports, slide decks and visual presentations I've created (detailed)