In my master’s thesis, I addressed a critical challenge in the open data ecosystem: while Open Government Data (OGD) is intended to promote transparency, participation, and innovation, it remains largely inaccessible to those without advanced data literacy. The Environmental Atlas Berlin (EAB), a key open environmental data (OED) platform, exemplifies this issue. It offers rich datasets and visualisations but lacks contextual or communicative features that would allow broader civil society groups—such as educators and NGOs—to engage meaningfully with the information it provides. At the same time, emerging frameworks like Rahul Bhargava’s Popular Data and concepts of Creative Data Literacy challenge us to make data not just available, but truly usable and relevant to people’s everyday lives.

My task was to explore how OED services could be designed to support value creation and engagement among these non-administrative user groups. I aimed to understand the actual needs, practices, and barriers experienced by these communities and to co-create solutions that translate abstract environmental data into stories, insights, and ultimately, action. This required a design process that extended beyond technical usability into the realm of storytelling, community engagement, and service co-creation.

To achieve this, I conducted in-depth interviews with educators, NGO representatives, designers, and data experts to map current practices and challenges. I facilitated a co-creative workshop using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® to explore metaphoric representations of ideal data experiences and collective needs. These activities led to the development of the Open Data Engagement Shell (ODES) framework—an ability-based conceptual model that structures data use across five stages, from raw symbols to public action. I then applied the ODES framework to prototype and test two concrete improvements to the Environmental Atlas. The first was a contextualising sidebar that translates technical map data into narrative, place-based insights using plain language and visuals. The second was a data message publication interface that allows users to create data messages from selected data, bringing digital insights into physical, public space.

These solutions were tested with users and iterated based on feedback. The result is both a theoretical and practical contribution to human-centred open data design. The ODES framework offers public institutions a structured tool for understanding user engagement, while the two prototyped features demonstrate how environmental data can be made more accessible, relatable, and impactful. Ultimately, the project repositions open data from a static resource into a civic medium—one that enables communities to understand their environment, tell meaningful stories, and take informed action.