Data Usability: Designing Data for Consumption

Introduces city employees to time-saving data management, cleaning, and design concepts to simplify reporting and data analysis. Also included post-training survey to measure impact.

by DataSF, City of San Francisco

Target Skill Level: Beginner
Audience: Government staff

This two-hour training reviews how to design simpler datasets, reducing repetition when fulfilling data tasks, and easing interpretation. This course primarily uses tools and formulas in Excel, such as concatenate, index, and match, to create flexible lookup tables. Participants leave with the following skills:

  • Using functions in Excel to clean and prepare data for analysis
  • New mindsets for approaching data preparation and cleaning 

 

Data Academy is a training program for city and county staff in San Francisco hosted by DataSF and the Office of the Chief Data Officer in the City and County of San Francisco, produced in partnership with the Office of the Controller. Other course offerings, such as Introduction to Excel and The Basics of Information Design, are available on the DataSF website.   

A June 2017 blog shares reflections on the impact of training for the San Francisco government staff and agencies, and provides a great example of measuring the difference that training makes to the mission of an organization.

Creative Commons License

Course Categories: Software