I worked with Stamen's strategy and development teams to create an interactive data visualization for The Berggruen Institute. The Berggruen Index evaluates 38 countries according to their Quality of Democracy, Governance, and Life. Our goal was to transform a static report into a tool for comparing countries and understanding the Institute's methods and approach.
This project is a great example of how open communication between visual designers and developers helps keep design solutions creative and efficient. As is often the case with smaller data visualization projects, we found ourselves establishing a lot of design parameters for the first time - we inherited relatively few visual/brand standards to influence the direction of the work. Since this was Berggruen's first interactive data visualization project, Stamen and I worked carefully to provide clear reasoning for each important decision.
The team at Stamen wrote a great Medium article to summarize this project and reveal insights from Berggruen's perspective on the importance of this work.
I was responsible for executing all visual designs shown in this case study. I gathered inputs, requirements, and feedback from the Stamen team and directly from the client team via presentation. I collaborated with the Stamen team on visual design and UI strategy, while others on the Stamen team took the lead on some of the more technical aspects of the visualization methods.
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With an open and collaborative relationship with technical development, I was able to maintain a creative approach to communicating complex information.
Effective data visualization balances creative exploration with technical accuracy. Sometimes the need for accuracy makes the creative aspect hard to maintain, since the two process often rely on very different tools and skillsets. When dealing with complex information, I push to keep communication open and to sketch ideas quickly and often. This way, I'm able to check assumptions for accuracy and benefit from the skillsets of others while maintaining the space to explore unexpected solutions.