How to communicate sustainability better
In which we explore the effectiveness of interactive data visualisation when telling stories about sustainability.
DIAS launched Winderful six months ago now.
It’s a service that uses real-time data to show how much of the UK National Grid’s electricity demand is being met by wind energy. We take the data, visualise it, and then create our own metrics around what MWh means in day to day terms. Things like the number of cups of tea you could boil a kettle for. How many miles you could drive in a Tesla Model S. Those sort of day to day things.
We called it ‘an experiment using realtime data to tell stories about renewable energy’. One level it was a technical experiment for us, as one of our first forays into using realtime data (and an excuse to dip our toe in the water of the Internet of Things by prototyping a physical version). But on a second level it was also an experiment to see for ourselves just how effective simple interactive data visualisation could be, both as a standalone web app and as the anchor to a more proactive push-notification service using twitter.
This was inspired in part by our belief that much communication around sustainability, climate change and renewable energy is unnecessarily dry and inaccessible.
We think there are a couple for reasons for this.
Firstly, communicating this stuff is hard. Explaining climate change is hard. Communicating what sustainability means is hard. Making the case for renewables in the face of hostile propaganda from the fossil fuels lobby is hard.
For example, the IPCC’s findings on the impacts of Climate Change are as close to a scientific consensus as it’s possible to get. Yet the Panel has struggled to get its story across in a way that people can grasp. To some extent, this is because they’re scientists communicating science. Their task is to report back to a global audience while safeguarding the rigour of their scientific process and presenting the results in a way that’s suitably cautious where uncertainty exist. This doesn’t naturally lend itself to user friendly, engaging language. At least not as far as the wider public are concerned.
But it’s not just the language and the contents. The means of communication leaves something to be desired too. More often than not, the painstakingly researched data at the heart of this stuff will sit in a graph or a table, and then be buried in a pdf. Maybe it’ll be downloaded by interested professionals, but it will rarely be presented in a more public, open, accessible form. It’s no wonder people have trouble engaging.
So what’s the answer?
Interactive data visualisation isn’t new, but in many cases we believe it’s still the best way to explain something complicated. Take some data, add some simple interactions so people can make sense of it. Put them in control of their own experience. It’s a powerful thing.
Of course, this is all old hat to most people working in digital, yet it feels like there’s a disconnect between the scientists, researchers and organisations doing the really important work and those with the skills to help them get their work across to wider audience.
Furthermore, as the tools of the trade like Hype and CartoDB improve (both in the quality of their outputs and their ease of use), it’s getting easier to quickly create interactives without breaking the bank. With a bit of help, this sort of data-driven storytelling should now accessible to anyone.
And what about our experiment?
We wanted to see how effective a simple interactive experience like Winderful could be as the bridge between invisible, raw data and a story that people can engage with.
The reaction Winderful received was overwhelmingly positive. From a standing start of close to zero exposure - save for a few well directed tweets - we racked up 40K views pretty quickly, along with loads of lovely feedback.
A Welsh councillor took the trouble to thank us by email:
I‘ve been on the town council arguing in favour of four turbines on our local hill for the last 9 years. This brilliant tool of yours is going to help me greatly.
For a studio whose remit is ‘to make lovely, useful things’, we’ll take that.
Winderful has become a weapon of rebuttal against those arguing that renewable energy is a waste of time and money. Rather than swap insults, fact and counter-fact on twitter, we see supporters of wind simply linking to Winderful, which presents the data in clear, simple and visual terms and makes their argument for them.
So what’s the take-out?
There are an awful lot of non-profit groups, think tanks, consultancies and companies doing amazing research, work and product development to inspire real change, navigating a path to a more sustainable future. Let’s use all the tools at our disposal to get down that road as quickly as we can.
