Translating complex information into beautifully designed reports for academics.
MY ROLE
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Visual communication
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Systems visualisation
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Interaction design
OUTLINE
Academic work is vitally important and reports a crucial medium for sharing work with government. Working with several academic teams, I developed visualisations that share systemic pain points for audiences outside of academia. By harnessing the power of visual communication, the report designs share complex information with clarity.
REPORT ONE
The design of the report Financial abuse: the weaponisation of child support was an ongoing iterative collaborative process with an interdisciplinary team of academics. Working together, the design developed through ongoing dialogue, with shifting headings and metaphors based on the team's ideas.
The cover was designed for impact; the typographic approach was intentional to emphasise the subject material's importance.
THE VISUAL SYSTEM
The visual system was designed with intention to not include images of people. Deep consideration was given to avoiding gendered harm through stereotypical visualisations.
Objects from women's lives became the focus of the visualisations, highlighting how financial abuse impacts everyday moments.
INTERACTION DESIGN
I continually considered how the viewer would interact with the report. To create a moment of 'pause' for important statistics, the visual strategy was to give important information a full page, creating a moment of pause with the viewer.
REPORT TWO
Opening the black box of child support drew on the experience of 675 single mothers, finding that violence was present in each phase of the child support system. The report was launched in Parliament and has ongoing impact to policy change.
THE VISUAL SYSTEM
The visual system built on learnings from the previous report, through avoiding gendered harm created by visualisation. The metaphor of 'shining a light' was carried through the report, with a set of numbers highlighting when assumptions appeared within the child support system.
SYSTEMS MAPPING
A visualisation was developed to reveal the process of the child support system.
FOREGROUNDING
LIVED EXPERIENCE
Emphasising single mother's lived experience was central to the design. The design system was dark to underscore the darkness of the child support system. A spotlight shone on the lived experience of single mothers throughout the report.
REPORT IMPACT
The report was launched at Parliament House in Canberra, led by Prof. Kay Cook, and the advocates Rosie Batty, Jess Hill and Terese Edwards. The report was cited in the 2023-24 Women’s Budget Statement and the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission's yearly report.
"The attending media and several parlimentary staffers commented on how the report's visual design made such a complex area of policy easy to understand, and also drew their attention to the most important pieces of information."
- Prof. Kay Cook
