Compelling Stories Amid Troubled Times

Using data visualization as the medium of choice for communicating vital information at scale

We find ourselves in an unprecedented chapter of history. We are inundated with information from every conceivable channel for audiences with increasingly short attention spans. As a consequence, we are all consuming streams of data and data visualizations from the media, government websites, and advocacy organizations to inform us of what is safe to do on a daily basis or influence our political outlooks. In short: data visualization has become the medium of choice for communicating vital information at scale.

Organizations like yours are now competing for their audiences’ attention in ways never thought necessary. The need for concise, compelling “visual rhetoric” designed to inform, engage, and inspire action has never been greater. This is why our clients, like the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, the AFL-CIO’s Working America, Ipsos, and One Earth turned to Graphicacy to help them compete to win.

Our work on COVID-19

Our partnership with the public health thought leaders at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) continues to thrive. You may remember our work on the Coronavirus Resource Center, which has hosted three to five billion interactions a day.

We have continued our partnership with the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center with a visualization that allows readers to display actions taken by the Governor of a state alongside a chart showing daily new cases or daily new deaths. Restrictions/closings, openings, and other actions are represented by markers so the reader can see how policy decisions at the state level have had a positive or negative impact on the outbreak.

Our work on the 2020 election

One presidential candidate has described this election as “a battle for the soul of America.” Political advocacy organizations across the country are vying to make the most compelling case for their respective candidates and answer the questions, “Why should I donate to your cause, and what impact will it have?” Organizations that successfully answer those questions do so by letting the data do the talking.

Communicating need and efficacy was at the top of the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate Working America’s wish list for their new and improved Vote Gain Calculator. Through an engaging, scrolling narrative and a suite of interactive charts and graphs, our team was able to lay out key points, utilizing a combination of Working America data and live data from FiveThirtyEight. Consequently, donors can quickly understand where Working America is having an impact in increasing vote share and the number of votes in key battleground states.

We have also continued our partnership with Ipsos on a polling dashboard. After launching the highly successful 2018 Political Atlas, which focused on the U.S. midterm elections, and the UK Political Atlas, which focused on the UK general election, Graphicacy and Ipsos launched the 2020 Political Atlas, which tracks the run-up to the U.S. presidential election.

Comparative data from the 2020 Political Atlas includes candidates’ social media sentiments, analysis of the presidential race from Larry Sabato’s team at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, coronavirus weekly new cases, and fundraising totals. Packed with frequently refreshed data, a clean, uncluttered layout allows users to easily navigate and compare the nominated candidates’ key statistics datapoint by datapoint.

Our work on climate change

Another existential crisis faces us: climate change. Graphicacy designed and engineered the Global Safety Net (GSN) Data Viewer application for One Earth, a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy. Our team focused on making it an engaging, intuitive and innovative platform for users to explore the GSN findings by ecoregion, country, and the 50 United States.

Karl Burkart, Managing Director at One Earth, had these kind words to say about our team and the efficacy of the application: “Graphicacy’s skilled data visualization work allows users to explore the underlying data of the Global Safety Net report, bringing the report’s data to life and making it much more accessible for scientists, practitioners and policymakers who are serious about combating climate change.”

We thank all of our clients for their confidence in our ability to execute their strategic visions and deliver mission-critical outcomes. For those of you that we have yet to work with, let us help you tell your story visually with an engaging website, application, or visualization.

Graphicacy partners with clients to tell engaging stories with data. Graphicacy’s team combines storytelling, thoughtful human-centered design and deep technical capabilities to build and deploy strategic, data rich digital projects. Graphicacy’s team has created data visualizations and infographics for top-tier organizations and companies, domestically and internationally, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Center for American Progress, the World Bank, the Anti-Defamation League and many others.