  Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic approach to allocating municipal
spending that has been adopted in many places in recent years, including in
Chicago. Current PB voting resembles a ballot where residents are asked which
municipal projects, such as school improvements and road repairs, to fund with
a limited budget. In this work, we ask how interactive visualization can
benefit PB by conducting a design probe-based interview study (N=13) with
policy workers and academics with expertise in PB, urban planning, and civic
HCI. Our probe explores how graphical elicitation of voter preferences and a
dashboard of voting statistics can be incorporated into a realistic PB tool.
Through qualitative analysis, we find that visualization creates opportunities
for city government to set expectations about budget constraints while also
granting their constituents greater freedom to articulate a wider range of
preferences. However, using visualization to provide transparency about PB
requires efforts to mitigate potential access barriers and mistrust. We call
for more visualization professionals to help build civic capacity by working in
and studying political systems.
