2020 Shortlist

What people in Switzerland worry about

Category: Best visualization (small and large newsrooms)

Country/area: Switzerland

Organisation: SRF, Swissinfo

Organisation size: Small

Publication date: 6 Mar 2019

Credit: Felix Michel, Angelo Zehr, Julian Schmidli, Tania Boa

Project description:

What are the five biggest problems in Switzerland? Every year, several thousand Swiss residents are asked this question in a nationwide poll. The annual ranking of Swiss residents’ top concerns is regarded as an important policy tool to find out what’s on the electorate’s mind. As national elections approached, SRF Data visualized the development of Swiss worries over 25 years and consulted experts and and dozens of other data sources to find out, what drives those worries, how do politicians react to these concerns and how the political reactions influence the worries of the people

Impact reached:

The article was published in 9 languages and picked up by several news formats, both radio and TV. It was widely shared in Social Media.

Techniques/technologies used:

We used R-Studio to gather different datasets and find pattern to investigate. Once we had a rough storyline, we sketched the story in Sketch and wrote a first draft of the text. We then implemented the front-end with D3,js, React, animated SVG. For smooth transitions we used Flubber.

What was the hardest part of this project?

We put a lot of focus on making sure the design is as clear and easy to understand as possible. Plus: A solid and reproducable documentation.

What can others learn from this project?

How to investigate data about feelings (worries) from different angles.

Project links:

www.swissinfo.ch/eng/2019-elections_what-people-in-switzerland-worry-about/44997722

srfdata.github.io/2019-06-worries/