Storyworks

2023

Entry type: Portfolio

Country/area: Germany

Publishing organisation: Storyworks Studio

Organisation size: Small

Cover letter:

Dear jury,

Storyworks Studio is a collective of like-minded people who believe in the power of data visualization, storytelling and interactivity. Combining these three entities in one we create unique special projects, which we call storylandings. We’ve been creating print infographics for a long time, making complex information easy-to-understand. But print format has it’s boundaries. When we switched to digital, this skill helped us create clear and comprehensible projects. And interactive features enhanced the effect and increased user Involvement. In every project our main goal is to create a seamless engaging visual story whatever the initial data we have. Converting patchy pieces of information into holistic story and implementing such an approach for social and commercial needs — that is where we have succeeded.

We have been in the field for 4 years by now. Our inspiring gurus are “SCMP”, “New York TImes”, “National Geographics” and “pudding.cool”. We believe that their work is the benchmark for the industry and we strive to achieve the same level in our work. We hope that the jury will evaluate the contribution of our studio to the industry.

Description of portfolio:

The portfolio of Storyworks Studio consists of social and commercial special projects.
We try our best to create native and engaging storylandings. On our way to bring to life projects we face different challenges and find various solutions according to the aims of a particular project.

For example, the project “[HIV. The answers you didn’t know](https://projects.storyworks.digital/hiv/)” was important to be precise in wording. That’s why we worked closely with a foundation that deals with people with HIV.
The main challenge of the project was the need to involve users who would not normally associate themselves with a group at risk of HIV infection. For that very reason we created chapters that can show them that HIV can also apply to them. In addition we created a quiz that reveals major misconceptions and myths about HIV.
We launched the project on the 1st of December — World AIDS Day. We cooperated with instagram influences to attrackt wide audience to that topic.

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The project “[Blood donation](https://https://projects.storyworks.digital/donors/)” was created to change the positioning of blood donation, to remove fears and concerns before the procedure. Thereby increase the number of regular donors.
We have processed more than 50 sources with information about donation into an illustrative and welcoming storylanding, consisting of 4 steps. The project gained 20,000 views in a month.

We decided to build a story through short situational sketches about a donor character. The focus in the project is not on the character themselves, but on familiar objects and details from their life like dishes, documents, plants, and lockers in a medical room. So we could link together all the stages of donation, even when the reader doesn’t see the character, for example, when the donor’s blood is being transfused to a recipient.

The concept also helped to avoid unnecessary triggers. The story didn’t have to depict a hospital that could cause negative connotations.

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[“Customer Experience Research”](https://https://projects.storyworks.digital/nda/index.html) was created to present the results of market research in a way that will give the bank’s employees a clear understanding of their clients’ requests and needs. Over the course of 3.5 months we turned more than 10 large-scale studies into a storylanding with 4 stories that helped the bank’s employees see the experiences of real people behind the numbers and make effective decisions based on it. We illustrated the NDA’s multi-million client base through 7 characters from different generations. All the characters in the storylanding are members of the same family. There are people of all ages in the family, which is universal enough to be clear to any reader.

We simulated typical situations in which people use the bank’s products together with the client. We then created scripts for the characters based on those situations. This allows bank managers to understand how customer experience is formed, as well as what is important for their customers and why.

As a result we found a new and effective format for internal newsletters — the storylanding made it easier for employees to digest the research data. This in turn helped improve the quality of the bank’s customer service.

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[“Why did the Kursk sink”](https://https://projects.storyworks.digital/kursk/) – the project dedicated to the tragedy of submarine Kursk, killing 118 crew members. We have visualized the causes of the tragedy described in the book “The Death of the Kursk”. Its author, Vice-Admiral Valery Ryazantsev, was part of the government commission set up to look into the catastrophe. Ryazantsev’s conclusions didn’t go into the official account, and he was dismissed. We visually explained the Ryazantsev’s version, leading the reader through all details of that catastrophe.