Graphicacy

2023

Entry type: Portfolio

Country/area: United States

Publishing organisation: World Resources Institute, Bezos Earth Fund, Outright, Vote Run Lead, Center for Economic Inclusion

Organisation size: Small

Cover letter:

With a nimble team of ten designers, developers, and strategists, **[Graphicacy](https://www.graphicacy.com/)**’s work in 2022 continued leveraging data visualization and visual storytelling to help mission-driven organizations _Visualize a Better World_. We focus on crafting data-driven narratives, visual stories, and digital experiences that help our partners add interest, context, explanation, conceptual thinking, and emotional resonance to their research and mission-driven communication.

For **Graphicacy**, empathic collaboration is at the heart of compelling stories; it is in the dialogue and exchange of ideas between our clients, our team, and end users, that we arrive at a shared sense of what is most helpful to drive education and advocacy. We believe this is true for what makes for good data journalism: honoring the human lives or important policy decisions that the data or research implicates, wrestling with contending narratives and voices on a topic, and balancing the trade-offs between affording the reader/user the ability to explore the data or be taken on a guided tour of carefully curated facts and story points. This is what we mean by _Visualizing a Better World_, both as an act and service to participate in meaningful conversations around tough and pressing issues of our time. The work represented in our portfolio is beyond **Graphicacy**’s doing alone, and we are proud of that.

The three projects we’ve included were some of the most meaningful and impactful we produced this year. These types of projects motivate our team because of the change they inspire within organizations to bolster their capacity and champion causes in a visually appealing, statistically rigorous, and emotive way. We serve organizations that aim to tell accessible and compelling stories with their data and encourage them to be force multipliers for advocating for better data storytelling in their local communities and global platforms.

In collaboration with their clients, **Graphicacy**’s 2022 portfolio of work includes economic inclusion and racial equity; performance-based analytics and visualization methods attuned to the advancement of productive climate change policy; and data-driven advocacy for increased women’s participation in politics. Our work aims to investigate, inform, and inspire action. We’re proud of the work we produced in 2022 and are grateful for the opportunity to be considered for the **Sigma Awards**.

Description of portfolio:

**Tracking systems change with the World Resources Institute (WRI), a Bezos Earth Fund**:
In collaboration with design agency, Outright, Graphicacy co-created the wide-ranging open-source [Systems Change Lab](https://systemschangelab.org/) data explorer to reveal obstacles to curbing global warming, halting biodiversity losses, building a just and equitable economy, and more of the world’s most pressing needs. We helped create a dynamic visual dashboard for the Systems Change Lab that allows many user groups to track progress (the platform identifies 72 targets of progress across 5 systems), learn and share pathways to change (167 enablers and barriers of progress across 5 systems), and encourage bolder action. Part of the challenge in showing large and complex data systems is breaking them down into bite-sized narratives choreographed by scroll triggers that help users understand the need for change and methodologies beyond the facts and figures. Ultimately providing a larger sense of how the tool relates to their everyday lives to protect the planet. This project was presented at COP27 and plans to include additional systems such as Forests and Land Management, Ocean Management, and Social Inclusion and Equity.

**Revealing gender inequality in politics for Vote Run Lead**:
Our team supported Vote Run Lead, an organization that inspires women to run for office by calling attention to an alarming gender disparity in political representation, designing engaging social media shareables, and a new data exploration tool. The organization inspires more women to run for office by calling attention to an alarming disparity: The percentage of women holding state legislative seats across America is far less than the percentage of women who comprise the state population. We helped Vote Run Lead build the [State of My Democracy ](https://stateofmydemocracy.org/) data explorer — which was released in time for the 2022 midterm elections. Our teams collaborated to create a robust tool that allows users to easily explore representation broken out by different racial/ethnic groups, as well as overall women of color in state legislatures. Unique state report card pages allow users to see where states stand on issues of importance and commit to running for office. This project is an integral example of how the timely execution of data-driven storytelling and visuals can help aid the public debate and build more inclusive pathways for public service.

**Displaying racial and economic disparities with the Center for Economic Inclusion**:
Across Minnesota’s Twin Cities region, exclusionary policies have historically limited economic opportunities for Black, Indigenous, Asian, and Hispanic residents. This past year, we helped transform their static research data into a dynamic catalyst for reform — inspiring action among employers, policymakers, and others capable of moving the needle for greater inclusivity. Through our work, [The Indicators for an Inclusive Regional Economy](https://indicators.centerforeconomicinclusion.org/), we provided a narrative and exploratory tool for disaggregating racial groups, revealing data collection gaps, and visualizing disparity and dispersion of outcomes attuned to the sensitivities of racial equity. One goal of this project was, when possible, disaggregating data to the specific race or ethnicity within a particular group. By doing so, we were able to show the cultural communities at a more granular level. Cultural communities refer to the more specific race or ethnicity within a particular group. We gained valuable insights into building a data-driven experience that allows for community calls-to-action and linking to partnering organizations of note while not shaming or casting unwanted judgment about where the racial and ethnic communities stand against one another. The Center for Economic Inclusion presented this project to more than 250 business, government, and civic leaders in the Minneapolis-St.Paul region during the Powering Inclusion Summit 2022.