Depicting the Need for Systems Change

In addition to the narrative pages, the Graphicacy and Outright teams created a dashboard section meant for power users, showing in a concise way the breadth of the data within the platform. The user has options to view all the data at once as a circular diagram called the pinwheel, or in a small multiple display called the grid view. The pinwheel paints an overarching picture of all the systems at once, while the grid enables user-controlled filtering and searching for specific indicators.

While the pinwheel concept had been part of the site design since the beginning, the design team re-worked it through many iterations to make it understandable and usable. “For the pinwheel, the design team helped us visualize new possibilities at a point where we’d been stuck,” said Cathline Dickens, Product Manager for Systems Change Lab. “We landed on an end product that was much easier to understand.” Interactivity helps bring the pinwheel to life: clicking on any wedge to expand it and show details in a sidebar.

The pinwheel was just one design that Graphicacy and Outright translated into a working product. The team reimagined all the data visualization elements across the site, and provided engineering solutions that allowed the team to easily add or update indicators. “The Graphicacy and Outright teams were there for the beauty as well as the bugs,” said Cathline, “working on the fly and fixing issues quickly and efficiently.”