Selected projects
We co-design with scientists and journalists, businesses and organisations, activists and professionals who need to turn complex information into meaningful narratives, unique visualisations and understandable messages.
We are proud to have worked with a number of high-profile clients on a range of multi-disciplinary projects covering climate science, sustainable development and public health. The ultimate goal of the projects is to turn scientific and complex knowledge into effective, engaging and accessible tools for wider audiences across different platforms.
Our clients
Some of our clients are the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the European Environment Agency, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, the Center for Climate Research in Norway and the World Meteorological Organization.
Some recent projects
EXHAUSTION (Ongoing, 2019–2023)
A EU research project whose goal is to find mitigation and adaptation strategies that tackle the health risk connected with increasing temperatures and heat waves due to climate change combined with air pollution.
With the CICERO communication team and the lead authors, InfoDesignLab has lead the design of the design of the website EXHAUSTION and the co-design process of 4 data-stories and data-visualisations targeting policymakers, media, medical practitioners and citizens to support informed decisions or raise awareness. The visualisations cover the following topics:
Visualisation 1: Climate change effects on health
Visualisation 2: Health effects of heat stress, if they are they exacerbated by poor air quality, how vulnerable groups are more affected
Visualisation 3: Adaptation measures: what are effective and fair adaptation measures and policy regulations (June 2023)
Visualisation 4: Socio-economic impacts related to health risks under alternative climate change scenarios (including global 1.5°C and 2°C scenarios), including co-benefits of mitigation and costs of adaptation. (November 2023)
Science Education for Action and Engagement Towards Sustainability (Ongoing, 2019–2022)
The main objective of the Science Education for Action and Engagement Towards Sustainability (SEAS) has been to establish, coordinate and evaluate collaboration among six open schooling networks in Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and the UK. SEAS networks consisted of partners with extensive experience in cooperation across formal, non-formal, and informal science education. In addition to researchers and local schools, the network included out-of-school centers, civil society organizations, and small and medium-sized enterprises.
InfoDesignLab’s contributions as a partner in the SEAS project has been situated at the interface between the local and the global level of the project. The work developed by InfoDesignLab together with local partners and with the support of the project leaders resulted, among other deliverables, with the design of This is Open Schooling, a data story to engage schools and teachers in the knowledge gained by the SEAS scientists during the research project.
iEtD Interactive Evidence to Decision Framework for the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (Ongoing 2018–2020)
InfoDesignLab is collaborating with the division of health services and researchers of the Infectious diseases and prevention department at the NIPH to design and implement the interactive Evidence to Decision framework, an interactive tool that support structured and transparent decision making based on health evidence.
IPCC Sixth Assessment Cycle contribution, The Physical Science Basis (2020–2021)
InfoDesignLab has led the co-design process of the figures for the summary for policymakers of the WG1 contribution to the that will be approved in 2021, the design of a set of data narratives that communicate the key messages of the SPM report effectively to non-specialist audiences via web-based platforms and/or social media, to design and produce a social-media-ready video trailer showcasing the SPM narrative and figures.
IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land (2018–2019)
Working closely with the scientist authors, the WGIII Technical Support Unit (TSU) and all six Working Group Co-Chairs over several months, InfoDesignLab were thrilled to be commissioned a second time by the IPCC to produce the graphics for the Summary for Policymakers of the Special Report on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL).
The IPCC, the world body for assessing the state of scientific knowledge related to climate change, its impacts and potential future risks, and possible response options, saw the Summary for Policymakers of the Special Report on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL) approved by the world’s governments on Wednesday 8th August 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Our specific outputs for the Special Report on Climate Change and Land included: co-designing six key SPM figures; real-time editing at the approval session in August 2019 (including one figure being designed completely from scratch on-site); and delivery of the approved visuals in formats appropriate for online, download and public outreach. We are grateful to the Working Group III Technical Support Unit for formally acknowledging InfoDesignLab’s contribution by listing Tom and Angela as drafting authors of the final SPM.
IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (2017-2018)
The IPCC’s assessment reports have been instrumental in shaping international climate policy. Perhaps the most high-profile in its 30-year history to date is the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR15). With a huge and diverse audience of scientists, policymakers, journalists, the public and stakeholders from the business, industry, finance and education sectors, the challenging brief was to produce a set of engaging and informative figures for the Summary for Policymakers, the most widely read part of the report.
Working closely with the scientist authors, the WGI Technical Support Unit (TSU) and all six Working Group Co-Chairs over several months, InfoDesignLab helped to bring a fresh approach to visual communication to the IPCC reports.
Our specific deliverables for the Special Report on 1.5°C included: co-designing five key SPM figures; real-time editing at the approval session in October 2018; and delivery of the approved visuals in formats appropriate for online, download and public outreach purposes. We are grateful to the Working Group I Technical Support Unit for formally acknowledging InfoDesignLab’s contribution by listing Tom and Angela as drafting authors of the final SPM.
As part of the project outputs, InfoDesignLab produced a trailer presented at COP24 in Katowice, Poland, outlining the main messages of the SPM figures and the report as a whole.
The Explainer World Meteorological Organisation and United Nations Environment Programme (2018)
InfoDesignLab has been commissioned the graphics for an explainer issued by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which provided context and explanations for key concepts underpinning the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C.
To secure rich and clean oceans, people are our greatest resource (2018)
In September 2016, around thirty eminent Norwegian researchers and leaders in marine resource management met in Bergen, Norway, to discuss how to improve collaborations to make rapid progress on ocean and marine resource management goals in the coming decade.
The participants came from leading marine research institutions and businesses around Norway and Europe, from various Norwegian ministries and government bodies, the Food and Agricultural Organisation, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, as well as Future Earth’s Ocean Knowledge-Action Network.
InfoDesignLab led the design process behind the communication of the highlights from those discussions.
That’s a claim, The Informed Health Choice Project (ongoing)
The goal of the Informed Health Choices project is to make sure people everywhere — in low and high income countries all over the world — have easy access to health research in formats that are understandable and useful to them. Specific outputs from the project included developing and testing user-friendly summaries of evidence and primary school learning resources to help children and their parents recognise the difference between reliable and unreliable claims.
The Water We Eat
Thanks to a continuing dialogue with leading water scientists such as Professor Tony Allan and Professor Arjen Hoekstra we have spent the past ten years communicating the research behind the Virtual Water and Water Footprint and its consequences to different audiences, in different contexts by using different design solutions.
Drug mortality is preventable. Here’s how. (2017)
A commission from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. The centre provide the EU and its Member States with a factual overview of European drug problems and a solid evidence base to support the drugs debate.
The goal was to create a piece to show that there is a set of relatively few actions that we can undertake to reduce drug related mortality. The target audience was policymakers in political discussions in their respective environment for example: municipality, at the EU Parliament, in a public debate. They wanted to provide some action points and their strength at hand for their discussion, presentations, choices.
The Norwegian Environmental Targets, Norwegian Environment Agency (2016–2018)
InfoDesignLab initiated a project with the Norwegian Environment Agency to apply our co-design process to the challenge of visualising the Norwegian Environmental Targets. The collaboration between the design team, scientists and editors resulted in a series of specific outputs including: designing maps and diagrams that explored Norway’s national environmental targets; directing a trailer and creating animations; designing an online platform where decision makers, the media and public could view and analyse progress towards the targets. All of these outputs were developed with the goal of enhancing public understanding and engagement.
