A key goal of data visualization is using design to help find connections in hard to understand information and statistics — and to make that information accessible and usable, so that it leads to action.
A few weeks ago, Visualizing.org — the new open collaboration data visualization hub created by the Seed Media Group and GE — launched a challenge in which interactive design teams competed to help make sense of some of the big issues that will be discussed at the World Economic Forum’s 3-day meeting, which gets underway in Dubai on Monday.
WEF is often described as “the world’ s largest brainstorm” — and the issues on the global agenda are increasingly interconnected and require systemic thinking. But as the visualizing.org team points out, “making decisions in the 21st century means swimming through data” and the WEF councils have to navigate a flood of information “that can all too often confuse and obscure rather than clarify and expose.”
The winning design from the School of Visual Arts in New York City — which was announced Thursday — tackled the complexity issue by looking at which WEF councils are seeking dialogue with one another. Their wheel lets you hover over a council name — and the lines indicate the other council they want to reach. The darkness of the line indicates the strength of the relationship. For example, the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” council understandably has a strong dialogue with their “Terrorism” colleagues. They want to engage the “International Legal” team — but that connection is quite weak.
The winners receive a $ 3,000 cash prize from GE and their design will be will be showcased at the Dubai summit.
Chat line: Click the image to go to visualizing.org, once there, hit the full screen button to use the interactive tool. The teams were given data derived from a survey of experts on WEF councils. They were then asked to highlight interconnectedness of issues and spot emerging clusters.
As we described in our story about the launch of Visualizing.org, the site is a free resource for designers and students looking for data about world issues — such as climate change and global health — and a platform for the creative community to share visualizations with each other and the public under a Creative Commons share-alike non-commercial license.
There were also four honorable mentions: 1. Nathan Yau; 2. Jan Willem Tulp; 3. Daniel McLaren; 4. Isao Matsunami.
* Read “Fixing the World via Data Viz: Design ‘Marathon’ Winners Unveiled”
* Read “GE & Seed Media Bring Data Visualization to the People”
* See more data visualizations in on GE Reports:
