Creative Brief
Crafted Product
This project is a companion to the Our Future, Together project, about the economic contribution of immigrants to the US economy. In the immigration project, we chose a classic, reassuring style; for this project, we used a more abstract style to make a story of race, class, and inequality accessible yet universal.
Goal
The Center for American Progress asked the design firm I work with, Graphicacy, to translate a report into compelling interactives. The report is about the economic benefits of closing the achievement gap between White students, Hispanics, and Blacks. We created an animated explainer video with interactive charts, and a 'scrollytelling' web page, which shows how pernicious gaps open even before a child’s first day of school.
Interactive demos
Test scores
Role
My roles: Art Direction, Storyboarding, Data Visualization, Web Design & Writing
- Graphicacy: Jeff Osborn & Reed Spool, developer
- Center for American Progress team
- Jordon Cheung, illustrator for motion graphic video
- Jeejung Kim, motion graphic animator
Process
Discovery
Observations
Center for American Progress reports have a graphic design style that's branded and targeted for those already interested in the subject matter. How might we change the graphic design style to send a message that even non-experts need to check out this report?
People have misconceptions about the academic achievement gap in the U.S. In the world around me, I've heard misleading, biased, and even racist statements made that merit dispelling and debunking. Why do so many people share these wrong stories? One reason: Systemic and structural problems in society aren't easy to picture.
Future scenarios presented in chart form seem too abstract. What if we humanized the future scenarios by showing groups of people moving in and out of the workforce?
In nature, histograms often have consistent shapes that show a normal distribution. These shapes look nothing like the ones we see in human social systems that create inequity, often called 'skewed' shapes with long tails. How might we visualize inequity by using the visual metaphor of Pachinko: the game of life? We sketched out a variety of designs and settled on using marbles cascading down a game board, settling into a final stack that tells a story of inequity.
Normal distribution: with a lot of samples randomly collected in nature, you usually get a count that has a normal shape. 
Skewed distribution: in human systems, we see lots of samples stacking on one end of the spectrum, with very few samples on the other end.
How might we visualize inequity by using the visual metaphor of Pachinko: the game of life? We sketched out a variety of designs and settled on using marbles cascading down a game board, settling into a final stack that tells a story of inequity.
Pachinko: game of life
Concepts → Blueprints
- Layout Concepts
- Layout Blueprints
- Text Blueprint
- Conceptual & Formal Style Concepts
- Video Concepts
- Video Blueprint
CAP_Gap-layout-2.pdf3379.0KB
CAP_Gap-layout.pdf5764.8KB
CAP-PROTOTYPE-2-REVIEW.pdf2424.9KB
CAP-PROTOTYPE-REVIEW.pdf5134.0KB
CAP-Achievement-Gap-Interactive-Text.pdf35.9KB
CAP-Concept-Real-v-Ideal.pdf452.8KB
CAP-CircleOfLife-concept.pdf1243.7KB
CAP-Analytical.pdf1451.6KB
CAP-SCRIPT-DRAFT.pdf45.5KB
Children_&_Teens_2.pdf467.3KB
CAP-GirlEffect-concept.pdf2031.8KB
CAP-OpeningVideo.pdf2191.0KB
Reflection
Explain & explore: We paired an explainer video with interactive charts that help readers explore the story. By allowing readers to explore, I believe the information becomes more credible. It's the same principle as being able to try on a pair of shoes before buying them. For readers unfamiliar with the topic, this experience also creates a more accessible onramp to the report findings.
The report is usually read by a smaller audience— but this type of experience could draw more readers into the report. This removes the barriers between people and thinking and caring about topics. With clear thinking and caring as the foundation, we can make positive changes to the world around us.