 Welcome to the National Archives and Records Administration's 2022 Genealogy Series. We are pleased to present this educational series of lectures on how to conduct family research using the 1950 Census. My name is Andrea Matney, and as the program's coordinator, please allow me to do a quick introduction and provide instructions on how to participate. These lectures will demonstrate how to use records from the 1950 Census and other federal resources for genealogical research. Our presenters include experts from the National Archives and Records Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau. Sessions are intended for beginners to experienced family historians. All are welcome. We invite you to join the conversation. Please participate with the presenters and other family historians during each session's premiere. You can ask questions via chat by first logging into YouTube. Keep your eye on the chat during the broadcast because the speaker will answer your questions there in the chat. Type your questions in at any time, but please keep your questions on today's topic. In addition, find live captioning, handouts, and the events evaluation form under the video box by clicking on Show More. Note on our schedule that all sessions are broadcast on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. Eastern. And yes, all of the recorded videos will remain available for viewing later and at any time. Today's program is the 1950 Census website, Design, Development, and Features to Expect. I'm so pleased to introduce our next presenter, Michael L. Knight. Mr. Knight serves as the Web Branch Chief within the National Archives Office of Innovation Digital Engagement Division. Michael joined the National Archives in 2017 as a project manager within the Office of Innovation's Project Management Division. He has worked extensively on web development and design projects and is also a subject matter expert on agile product development methods. Michael is a Certified Scrum Professional, Certified Scrum Master, and a Certified Project Management Professional. I'm pleased to turn the broadcast over to Mr. Knight. Hey, thank you, Andrea. In this presentation, I'm going to tell you about the approach that our team has taken to design and develop the 1950 Census website. I'm also going to discuss the features that you can expect to find and use on the site to explore the census records. As some of you may know, the 1950 Census website will launch on April 1st, 2022. Through the website, visitors will be able to access more than 6 million population schedule pages and estimated 9,634 enumeration district maps and an estimated 33,360 form P8 Indian Reservation schedules. To begin, I want to share with you some background on how the website was created and also show you how the design of the site progressed over the course of the project. What's important to know first is that the overall design of the website, everything from the layout of the site to the colors that were used, the placement of text to the function of the various search features, all of those things were shaped by feedback that we received from key audiences inside and outside of the National Archives. To help us in that process, our team incorporated elements of agile and user-centered design practices throughout the project. The very first thing that we did at the start of the project was user research. Between January and February of 2021, our user experience team conducted a series of interviews with individuals from within the National Archives, as well as individuals outside of the agency. Our goals for these interviews was to gain insight on the specific expectations, needs, design preferences, and other points of feedback that had to be considered in the creation of the 1950 census website. In the end, our team interviewed more than 20 individuals. This included internal narrow stakeholders, genealogists and professional researchers, stakeholders with a specific interest in Native American census records, and other potential users of the planned 1950 census website. Everyone was interviewed individually and asked similar open-ended questions, and the feedback that we gathered helped to shape the design direction of the website. In just a little bit, I'll be sharing some of the wireframes and other design prototypes that resulted from this process. Our team used an iterative and incremental workflow for the development of the website. Again, we leveraged a lot of agile and human-centered design practices. For example, our team was committed to working in two-week intervals called sprints, in which our efforts were focused on the development of specific design and or functional elements of the website. Each sprint built on the work of the previous one until the output ultimately resulted in the 1950 census website that will launch on April 1. At the conclusion of each sprint, the results or the product of the sprint was presented to a group of stakeholders in a demo session. These sessions were held virtually, and they were attended by some of the individuals who were interviewed during our user research phase earlier in the project, as well as individuals who were unable to join our interviews but wanted to stay engaged throughout the project, and also other NARA staff and project stakeholders who were involved at various levels in the 1950 census public release efforts overall. The key benefits of those demo sessions were that they provided an opportunity for participants to get a firsthand look at the progression of the website, and they also serve as a forum for participants to share feedback and for our team to ask questions to get clarity on some of the features that we've worked on. The feedback that we received in those sessions helped to determine changes that needed to be made to the site's design and feature set, and ultimately helped to guide the direction of the development of the website overall. So this is a sample of one of the initial wireframes that was developed based on the feedback that our team gathered from individuals during our user research phase. Wireframes, if you're not familiar, are essentially very high-level design blueprints that are intended to represent potential page layouts and to help facilitate discussion with stakeholders and to inform decision-making toward the final design. The wireframes were designed without color, so they're black and white, and they did not include any actual design elements, graphics, or images. There were, however, dark shaded boxes that we would use to indicate where a photo or graphic could be placed in the future design. The design of the wireframes also followed the US web design system, which influenced elements such as the type font and grid spacing that was used throughout the site. So here we have another wireframe that was created during the design phase. We can see here that the design direction has shifted a bit based on some of the feedback that we received. So after several sprints and additional rounds of design iterations, and based on the feedback that we received during our demos, we landed on a general design direction for the site. This is a shot here of the homepage. It includes narrow branding elements at the top. Also, the top is a simple navigation area that features links to various pages that would be included on the website. Also, we have the main focal area at the center of the page. That includes a large welcome message followed by some introductory text. There's also two call to action buttons, a begin search and how to search. And once again, the dark gray area here was used to represent where an image could be placed. As the project progressed, and we've received more feedback from participants within our demo sessions, the team began to shift to creating more detailed design mock-ups. That included the use of actual photos and colors is seen here in this example. The large photo serves as the main focal point on the page, along with two call to action buttons, one to begin search and another to find resources to assist visitors with their search. And lastly, here's an image of one of the final mock-ups that emerge from the design phase of the project. This design is what you will see when the 1950 census website is launched on April 1st. Now, I'll discuss the features that you can expect to find on the 1950 census website when it launches on April 1st. First up is location search. Website visitors will have the ability to search the 1950 census records by state, county or city, reservation, and enumeration district. Here we see the website's main search page. In the left side bar area, there are a number of search filter options that are available which visitors may use to explore the 1950 census records. These search filters include state, county or city, name, reservation, and enumeration district. Here we see the search results page, which will appear after you have selected one or more of the filters to perform a search for census records. In this example search for census records from the District of Columbia, we can see a number of results that were found, which are organized in rows. We can also see information listed above those results, including the number of results that were found, the number of pages that those results span across, and options to adjust the number of results that are listed per page. You can also click on the page numbers or the links titled first, previous, next, and last to navigate through the pages of results. Another area to take note of is the your search section that appears in the left sidebar above the search results. Each time a search filter is used, it will be reflected in this section so you can keep track of all the active filters that are in use in your current search. You can also clear your current search filters or view your recent search through the links that are also available in this section. Here's a closer look at one of the results from our example search. At the top, we can see the ED or enumeration district number, the state, county or city, and the number of pages that are included in the associated population schedule. Below that, we can see the enumeration district description, which also includes a link to view the digitized copy of the description. At the bottom, we can see a share button, which can be used to copy and share a link to this particular record to various social media platforms or email. Next, there's an ED maps button, which can be clicked to reveal digitized copies of the associated enumeration district maps. Followed by that, there's a population schedule button, which can be clicked to reveal a digitized copy of the associated population schedule. Here, we can see a digitized copy of the population schedule. There are a collection of thumbnails that are also included that can be used to navigate through the pages within the population schedule. It's possible to zoom into an image to get a closer look, and you can do this by clicking on it with your mouse or touchpad. Here, we see a close-up shot that shows the level of magnification that is available. In addition, there's also a set of options that can be used to make adjustments to the images while you are viewing them. This includes options to rotate the image clockwise or counterclockwise to invert the colors and to increase or decrease the level of brightness and contrast. There's also an option that will be available to allow you to download a copy of the current record that you are viewing. The next feature that you can expect to find on the 1950 census website when it launches on April 1st is name search. Through the name search feature, you will have the ability to search for any known name that may appear within the 1950 census population schedules. Specifically, those that appeared within the name column on the population schedule forms. To make this feature possible, our team use an artificial intelligence tool to extract names and their associated line numbers from the 1950 census population schedules. Searches may include an individual's first and or last name and also the search engine has been configured to find close variations or spellings of names as they appear within the site's name index. There are some things to be aware of. As some of you may know, the names on the population schedules are handwritten. The tool that we use to extract the names from the schedules essentially scan the handwriting and converted it to text. In instances where the writing wasn't clear or where ink may have been faded or where words may have been crossed out, those things greatly impacted the quality of the text extractions. This was also the case when extracting line numbers as well. Here we see the search results page once again. In this example, we've searched for the name John Doe and we can see here a number of results that were found, which are organized in rows. Here's a closer look at one of the results from our example search. At the top, we can see the ED or enumeration district number, the state, county or city, and names that were found in the associated population schedule that match or maybe close variations of the name that we searched for. Once again, we see the share button as well as the population schedule button. Clicking the population schedule button in this instance will display the specific page within the digitized copy of the population schedule where the match names are located. This is unique to the name search results screen. At the bottom here, we see a list of all the names and line numbers that were extracted from this particular population schedule page through the use of our artificial intelligence text extraction tool. So we realize that the name search feature will not be perfect. As I mentioned, the quality of the text extractions from the population schedules was greatly impacted in some cases by the quality of handwriting or the overall condition of the original microfilm. And that brings me to our next feature, transcription. As visitors submit transcriptions, they will also be incorporated into the website's name index, which will improve the quality of the name search feature over time. There's also a moderation component within the tool, which includes some quality control measures and will also allow NARA community managers to review the transcriptions that are being contributed to the site. Once again, we have the search results page here. And in this example, we can see the transcription button labeled help us correct names, which will appear whenever you are viewing a digitized population schedule on the site. Clicking on the button will prompt you to follow a simple set of steps to get started, including entering a valid email address for verification purposes. However, it is not necessary to create an account to submit transcriptions. Here we can see one of the first screens that you'll see within the transcription tool after verifying your email address. This is where you would select the line number that is associated with the name that you would like to transcribe. After you've selected the line number, you'll be directed to this next screen where you can transcribe the full name. You'll be allowed to enter a prefix, first name, last name, middle name, or suffix. You also have the ability to view the transcription history of a given name within a population schedule. In this example, you can see that there were transcriptions previously submitted for the names that appear on lines one and three within this particular population schedule that I'm viewing here. In closing, we are excited about the upcoming launch of the 1950 census website. And we also hope that you will be pleased with the overall experience of the site and all the features that will be included to assist you in searching through the records. As noted earlier, the creation of the site has been a fully user-driven effort. We receive feedback from various stakeholders throughout the project on everything from the layout of the site to the colors that were used, the placement of the text to the function of various search features. We believe that this site will provide more ways for people to access and explore the census records on the first day of the public release than perhaps ever before. As I mentioned, site visitors will be able to search the records by state, county or city, name, reservation, and enumeration district. There will also be a transcription tool available. And last, but certainly not least, on April 1st, we will also make the entire 1950 census data set available for anyone to download. When the site is launched, there will be a section included that will direct visitors to the location where they can download the full data set. I appreciate this opportunity to speak with you all about the 1950 census website. For more information about the upcoming release of the records and the launch of the website, please visit the URL listed here. archives.gov slash 1950 census. Thank you. Thank you for joining us for today's presentation. We are wrapping up the lecture portion of the broadcast, but we'll continue to take your questions about today's topic in the chat section. Please take a minute to complete our short evaluation form so we can plan future programs based on your feedback. Find the link to it under show more. If we did not get to your question today, please send us an email. Note that the presentation's video recording and handout will remain available on this YouTube page and our website. If you enjoyed this video, check out our Know Your Records program. We have many more educational videos on how to do research with us. Thank you to the Genealogy Series team who contributed to the success of this program. We are grateful for your work. Again, please stay if you have questions, although we are concluding the video portion of the broadcast. We will continue to take your questions in chat for another 10 minutes.