COMPLEX DATA NEEDS DESIGN
2018
-
2025
A case study on information design - and how every dataset arrives with an argument that only good graphic design can help make.
context
Information design is not a neutral transmission of data - it almost always presents a point of view. We tend to receive a data set that has more than needed. We start with asking what the client wants the audience to do with the information - then work backwards to figuring out how to explain it.
Over the years we’ve had the opportunity to work on several information design / data visualisations to understand the different complexities that each project brings.
CHALLENGE
The identity needed to feel professional and emotionally safe, without becoming ethnically narrow. It had to acknowledge Islamic and cross-regional cultural references while remaining inclusive of communities spanning East Asia to West Africa.
The visual system also needed to subtly incorporate Arabic letterforms in a modern way. Most importantly, the brand had to communicate multiplicity: different identities, languages, and lived experiences held within one cohesive system.
Project 1 /
Building Principles of Engagement - Indigenous Research Support Initiative
This was a conference from which we had to gather group discussion notes and learnings from breakout groups, compile, analyse and convert it into a report. We pitched a creative approach instead of a simple written document of proceedings. We proposed an illustration heavy conceptual design as the audience was going to be stakeholders outside of traditional academic institutions, including but not limited to indigenous community leaders. With the primary audience being community members, we felt a more literary approach would be better received.
We researched Indigenous built structures in the British Columbian region, and drafted a report based on the meaning or design of these structures. This was accompanied by full page layouts as well as simple line illustrations.
OUTCOME
If information must make an impact, it must be represented in a format that makes it interesting, readable and accessible. This may mean breaking away from tradition.
Project 2 /
D4GX: Highlights of the Data for Good Exchange Initiative
The Data for Good Exchange (D4GX) Initiative is an effort, aiming to empower communities with the resources, capacity, and knowledge to become enablers of development agendas. Dasra, a non-profit spearheading the D4GX India impact analysis approached us to design their end of project report. We worked on a new design style that followed the colour language set up from a previous report.
Amongst a number of sections was one that discussed a theoretical approach taken - the Field Approach. To explain this approach, we developed an illustrative model that visually demonstrated the different layers of the theory and their relationship to one another. This helped explain a very intangible flow of influence to the intended civil society audience.
OUTCOME
Theories need to be understood simply - creative graphic representation of abstract concepts, can allow for greater capacity to hold complexities.
Project 3 /
11 Diseases | Flyer for Wellcome Trust
When working with any data, there are many underlying assumptions in the knowledge level of the reader. While we have to begin with a basic understanding, we try to include as best as possible an easy introduction to what point is being made. With the Wellcome Trust flyer there were 3 data sets to be represented. Instead of showing them separately, we combined them into one interrelated graphic to drive home the comparison of COVID-19 amidst other global public health concerns. This was told through 3 parameters: Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), Disease Incidence and Global Mortality.
Along with explaining each, there was also a matter of all the data points being of vastly different scales, and the year of data being extremely important. The list of footnotes in this graphic are indicative of the complexities to be explained and managed in this graphic. This comparative helped decision makers and the public understand more simply, how public health priorities are determined.
OUTCOME
Representing multiple data sets in an interconnected design can help drive home the relationship better than three separate graphs.
If you’ve come so far, lets connect.
building a brand culture: snapin
01
LETS GET
STARTED
LETS GET
STARTED
2018 - 2025
COMPLEX DATA NEEDS DESIGN
A case study on information design - and how every dataset arrives with an argument that only good graphic design can help make.
Information design is not a neutral transmission of data - it almost always presents a point of view. We tend to receive a data set that has more than needed. We start with asking what the client wants the audience to do with the information - then work backwards to figuring out how to explain it.
Over the years we’ve had the opportunity to work on several information design / data visualisations to understand the different complexities that each project brings.
Project 1 /
Building Principles of Engagement - Indigenous Research Support Initiative
This was a conference from which we had to gather group discussion notes and learnings from breakout groups, compile, analyse and convert it into a report. We pitched a creative approach instead of a simple written document of proceedings. We proposed an illustration heavy conceptual design as the audience was going to be stakeholders outside of traditional academic institutions, including but not limited to indigenous community leaders. With the primary audience being community members, we felt a more literary approach would be better received.
We researched Indigenous built structures in the British Columbian region, and drafted a report based on the meaning or design of these structures. This was accompanied by full page layouts as well as simple line illustrations.
OUTCOME
If information must make an impact, it must be represented in a format that makes it interesting, readable and accessible. This may mean breaking away from tradition.
Project 2 /
D4GX: Highlights of the Data for Good Exchange Initiative
The Data for Good Exchange (D4GX) Initiative is an effort, aiming to empower communities with the resources, capacity, and knowledge to become enablers of development agendas. Dasra, a non-profit spearheading the D4GX India impact analysis approached us to design their end of project report. We worked on a new design style that followed the colour language set up from a previous report.
Amongst a number of sections was one that discussed a theoretical approach taken - the Field Approach. To explain this approach, we developed an illustrative model that visually demonstrated the different layers of the theory and their relationship to one another. This helped explain a very intangible flow of influence to the intended civil society audience.
OUTCOME
Theories need to be understood simply - creative graphic representation of abstract concepts, can allow for greater capacity to hold complexities.
Project 3 /
11 Diseases | Flyer for Wellcome Trust
When working with any data, there are many underlying assumptions in the knowledge level of the reader. While we have to begin with a basic understanding, we try to include as best as possible an easy introduction to what point is being made. With the Wellcome Trust flyer there were 3 data sets to be represented. Instead of showing them separately, we combined them into one interrelated graphic to drive home the comparison of COVID-19 amidst other global public health concerns. This was told through 3 parameters: Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), Disease Incidence and Global Mortality.
Along with explaining each, there was also a matter of all the data points being of vastly different scales, and the year of data being extremely important. The list of footnotes in this graphic are indicative of the complexities to be explained and managed in this graphic. This comparative helped decision makers and the public understand more simply, how public health priorities are determined.
OUTCOME
Representing multiple data sets in an interconnected design can help drive home the relationship better than three separate graphs.
building a brand culture: snapin
01
LETS GET STARTED
