Datlas translated proprietary research from the Harvard Center for International Development Growth Lab into a regional atlas for exploring Colombia’s economic diversity. I joined the project to improve the product’s usability, add clearer context around sophisticated visualizations, and provide hands-on design and frontend support within a tight delivery window.
Challenge
- A regional micro site presenting data from the existing tool: https://atlas.hks.harvard.edu/
- Rigorous visualization and visual design but underdeveloped interaction and usability
- Tight delivery timelines and limited development resources
Approach
- Rapid assessment of current state
- Developed prioritized set of actionable recommendations
- Designed and implemented 2 custom visualizations to round out the suite
- Embedded in development team for frontend support and polish
Outcome
- Project delivered on time and with stakeholder approval
- Used as template for other region-specific atlases: http://cide.cid-labs.com/
Discovery and recommendations
The first step was assessing the UX of the existing site. I proposed a set of pragmatic interventions that could be accomplished in a limited timeframe. These included:
- reworking the landing page with clearer language and hierarchy,
- introducing persistent header navigation on all interior pages,
- simplification of url path routing,
- wrapping existing data visualizations with better contextual information, and
- refinement of color palette and typography throughout the site.
Bringing context to the information design
One area of focus was the site’s existing data visualizations. They were sophisticated but often lacking in the appropriate context for users to really engage with them. There were also areas of opportunity for new, more dense presentations of existing data.
Impact
Once the initial audit was complete and agreed upon, I spent several months embedded in the development team of the Growth Lab, implementing these proposals as well as providing design and frontend development support prior to launch.
