Voice to Vision: Enabling Shared Understanding in Civic Decision-Making through Participatory Data Infrastructure
Author(s)
Hughes, Margaret
Overney, Cassandra
Kamra, Ashima
Tepale, Jasmin
Hamby, Elizabeth
Jasim, Mahmood
Roy, Deb
Date Issued
May 20, 2026
Journal
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
Citation
Margaret Hughes, Cassandra Overney, Ashima Kamra, Jasmin Tepale, Elizabeth Hamby, Mahmood Jasim, and Deb Roy. 2026. Voice to Vision: Enabling Shared Understanding in Civic Decision-Making through Participatory Data Infrastructure. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 10, 2, Article CSCW041 (April 2026), 36 pages.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Trust and transparency in civic decision-making processes, like neighborhood planning, are eroding as community members frequently report sending feedback “into a void” without understanding how, or whether, their input influences outcomes. To address this gap, we introduce Voice to Vision, a sociotechnical system that bridges community voices and planning outputs through a structured yet flexible data infrastructure and complementary interfaces for both community members and planners. Through a five-month iterative design process with 21 stakeholders and subsequent field evaluation involving 24 participants, we examine how this system facilitates shared understanding across the civic ecosystem. Our findings reveal that while planners value systematic sensemaking tools that find connections across diverse inputs, community members prioritize seeing themselves reflected in the process, discovering patterns within feedback, and observing the rigor behind decisions, while emphasizing the importance of actionable outcomes. We contribute insights into participatory design for civic contexts, a complete sociotechnical system with an interoperable data structure for civic decision-making, and empirical findings that inform how digital platforms can promote shared understanding among elected or appointed officials, planners, and community members by enhancing transparency and legitimacy.
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1145/3788077
