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Due 12/9
In the Final Project Part 1, I was tasked with selecting my project topic, outlining my project, and identifying data sources to use for the project. While I thought of numerous topics of interest, I was most limited by data availability. Finding data was challenging for me, so I was excited to come across the Sustainable Development Report website. Once I was inspired to explore the SDGs, I was able to find more information from different sources like the City of Pittsburgh and our own Carnegie Mellon University.
By the end of Part 1, I defined my main message: “The UN Sustainable Development Goals are a framework that can and should be employed across all sectors and levels to create wide-reaching, long-lasting change.”
Somewhat surprisingly, my main message did not change much through the rest of the project process. My final report does represent how SDGs can be employed across different levels, from national to organizational.
Part 1 also included several sketches of how I would represent my data. Although my final visualizations did not turn out exactly like my sketches, they were a good starting point and inspiration to begin iterating different charts.
In the Final Project Part 2, I had the chance to start building out my narrative more. I created a general structure in Shorthand and added wireframes. These wireframes were digital iterations of my previously hand-drawn sketches. During this step I was also intentional about identifying my target audience and tailoring the narrative and visuals to that audience. One strategy I used was creating “personas” of people I thought might be interested in my presentation. Another useful step was conducting interviews with users about each wireframe data visualization.
Part 2 of the project gave me the opportunity to both plan for next steps, and reflect on what I had already done. At the end of this part, I had a basic set-up for my story, and a list of action items to improve upon it.
When I began Part 3 of the project, I started with the bare-bones Shorthand structure I outlined in Part 2, which included some early iterations of my charts. I had a long list of changes to make and other suggestions based on my interview feedback in Part 2.
I tried to make my charts more interpretable. The biggest adjustments I made were re-ordering data bars to illustrate trends like highest-to-lowest, rather than keeping all of the data in the SDG order from #1 to #17. Another suggestion I implemented was changing the SDG labels from their numeric lables (e.g. #13) to a keyword label (e.g. “Climate”). While I wasn’t able to use keywords in every case, I feel that they did help make the charts more interpretable. Where I couldn’t use keywords, I used the # symbol to indicate “number” to try to help differentiate the SDG’s label from any actual numeric values.
I also tried to make my charts more focused. Based on instructor feedback, I used color to highlight some data points of interest, while graying out other data in my Pittsburgh chart. This helped the user focus on the highest and lowest levels of alignment across the SDGs. I also focused in on a subset of SDGs in my line graph of SDGs over time in the U.S. This helped focus in on the lowest SDGs, where the most progress needs to be made. Based on interview feedback, I added a reference point to my first U.S. graph, indicating the average of the sample of countries included in the chart. I appreciated how this helped illustrate how the U.S. ranks across those other countries, even more clearly than when I had only included the distribution of other countries as gray circles.
I tried to make my story more thorough. Between Part 2 and Part 3, I added some bulk to my story in the form of more text, more links, and more photos. Instead of only linking references, I also included a few other links to resources for a reader, that I thought could be useful or interesting. I also provided much more explanation of the final charts and added notes on some of the limitations and factors that affect interpretation. The added narrative really made a difference in how comprehensive my story is. Before Part 3, the Shorthand report needed me to present it. Now, I am more confident that it can stand alone as a resource.
When I created the personas in Part 2, it helped me gain a better understanding of the diversity of audience members I wanted to appeal to. Specifically, what I think is challenging is to tailor a professional presentation to a variety of professions. Different fields have different communication styles, cultural norms, expectations, etc. In creating the personas, I realized that instead of targeting any local organization, I was thinking more about mission-driven organizations. I felt that this was a more accurate reflection of my goals for the presentation. It ruled out most businesses, but I did end up thinking through a persona of a real estate development professional who runs a mission-driven business. However, I think most of my audience would work for government or non-profit organizations.
Because of this, I decided to include one government and one non-profit example in my final report. By emphasizing how a city and how a University have used the SDGs, I feel that my audience will be able to relate to at least one or the other.
Another way I adjusted to my expected audience was simply in preparing to present in class. Given the setting, I thought it could be useful to include a call to action that would be useful for my peers. I decided I wanted to include a second “call to action” for the average local citizen, rather than just target local leaders. I feel that citizens, especially at the local level, have an impact on their communities. So, in advocating for sustainable community development within the framework of the SDGs, it made sense to include citizens in my audience.
In the report, I intentionally used the color palette that the SDGs use. These colors appeared both in the official SDG graphics, but also in my font colors, chart bars, and background colors. While the colors are bold and bright, I tried to balance them out with white and grays. The “rainbow effect” was hard to avoid, especially in my figure that used CMU data. However, the consistency of the color coding from beginning to end made it easier to interpret, in my opinion.
I also used color to facilitate the narrative structure. My report had three main analysis sections that focused on the U.S., Pittsburgh, and CMU. Each of these had their own background color. All of the text and graphs for the United States is on a blue background. Everything for Pittsburgh is on a gray background, and everything for CMU is on a gold background. I think this color-blocking technique helped tie together the different blocks of my overall story.
Another design choice I made was how to represent my citations. I chose to use numeric formatting with hyperlinks to create the most clarity and usefulness to the reader, while adding the least amount of visual clutter. I tried one version using superscripts with hyperlinks, but the underline of the hyperlink looked strange, and the size of the superscript made it hard to click. I chose to use the number in brackets, because it was obvious enough for a reader, while also taking up only a small amount of space. As an example, [2] refers to the second item in the References section. I also hyperlinked each reference to its online source, to make it easy for the reader to find.
I also added a number of images to help build out my design. I chose images that could help cue the reader to specific conexts. For example, I chose a simple photo of the Statue of Liberty when I shifted to talking about the United States. When I wanted to “zoom in” to a more local level, I used an image of a magnifying glass followed by a photo of Pittsburgh. I appreciate how the images can help carry the reader from place to place.
Part 3 of the Final Project produced a high-quality result, but I needed Parts 1 and 2 to build on beforehand. Through this process, I was able to produce a focused but comprehensive guide to the Sustainable Development Goals Framework, as it is implemented from the national scale zooming all the way in to the local organizational level. While there are always bits and pieces of a project that could benefit from further iterations, I am proud of the final deliverable I created, and I hope that it would be appreciated by and useful to my intended audience.
I cited the following sources in my final report: