As part of the National Audit Office’s study "An analysis of the asylum system", I developed the NAO’s first fully interactive systems data visualisation using RShiny (An analysis of the asylum system). The tool demonstrates how advanced R capabilities can transform the way complex public‑sector systems are analysed, communicated, and used to inform decision‑making.

By combining RShiny with a scrollytelling framework, the visualisation presents a full end‑to‑end map of the UK asylum system, enabling users to explore processes, data flows, and performance insights in an accessible, dynamic format.

Building a user-centred data product of this scale was a first for the organisation. The map was constructed using a suite of R packages, with RShiny providing dynamic interactivity that allows users to dive deeper into system flows and supplementary visualisations. As users scroll through the interface, the narrative, graphics, and data views automatically update - providing an intuitive, guided analytical journey. This functionality was developed primarily in RShiny, enhanced with targeted CSS and JavaScript to deliver a smooth, responsive experience.

In this talk, I will demonstrate the final product, highlighting the different visual elements developed and their contribution to the study’s analytical impact. I will provide a high‑level walkthrough of the underlying code - primarily in R, with supporting JavaScript - focusing on the scrollytelling architecture and interactive systems mapping. I will also discuss the integration of user analytics, which allows us to understand how audiences engage with the visualisation and how this insight informs future tool design.