Overview

This project is the culmination of 7 weeks of training into how to craft a impactful message through data visualization. My interest in visualizing messages was born out of my frustration when my peers were not able to see the simple message in a small 7x18 matrix of data that summarized energy prices for New England. This was not a unique occurrence and they were not the only people with whom I struggled to put across a crisp and actionable insight out of data sets.

The objective for this project was to put together the learnings I have had over the course and craft a compelling story using various tools and platforms like Flourish, Figma, Tableau, Shorthand, and publicly available datasets.

The Story

The idea of the story was born out of several conversations that I have had for years with my peers, and my own experience of feeling out of place in my first role out of college. What started off just as a hunch became a belief when I interviewed people about their experience working and now is a fact with several different surveys and reports backing it. “Are students ready to graduate,” at its core is a story about unsaid and often incorrectly placed expectations. The story covers the epidemic of long work hours, its effect on health, changing priorities of the new generation, and the shift both corporate and educational institutions have to make to pave a path for a sustainable and productive work culture.

The Audience

With graduating students as the main stakeholders who are on the receiving end of this, I focused primarily on them. However, its not just what is expected of them, it also what they are looking for. In my research, I was able to uncover the changing trends within the needs of Gen Z. Their interest in building multiple sources of income, need for flexibility, and prioritizing comfort through remote work over in-person . Overall a decreasing allure of conventional workplaces.

However, this can’t exit in a silo and neither can it be addressed alone. The expectations put by the informal structures of corporates are equally important and so are educational institutes in their role to prepare students for success. These three stakeholders are my audience. Its important that they all come together, not because students are struggling but because of it, both stakeholders are losing out on productivity, revenue, and an opportunity to build a strong structure together.

Process

What started of as an in-class exercise on my interest to share a point across. This story soon took the shape of an idea. An idea that had clear beginning, main message, and a call to action. In Part 1 of the project, it was this initial development of idea through piece meals and breadcrumbs of data sets. This part was an iterative one for me as I had to change my story twice, mainly because I was chasing ideas that were not focused enough to get data sets on.

However, once this phase was over, the story quickly became heavy on ideation. Putting together different numbers and singular ideas to see if it would form a coherent statement. Part 2 was akin to Fail Fast and Learn Faster. The process of making a draft shorthand was tedious because it brought forward all the ideas that were making sense only in my head. Iterating through them and testing a polished version by recruiting audience was definitely super critical in the overall process. It helped me put on my communicator glasses and focus on what the audience is taking away from it rather than a pigeon hole understanding of the creator. Being exposed to the audience’s perspective and feedback from Professor Goranson was truly monumental towards what the story is now.

In Part 3, I summarized all the four interviews along with the instructor’s feedback into insights that I used as heuristics to critique the information I had in my draft version. The core shortcomings that I worked on were around the idea of:
1. Missing connectors between one topic to another
2. Over dependence on text and thus an absence of engaging storyline
3. Information hierarchy and a need for audience to have cognitive breaks through the story

I addressed these points by including short statements that acted as links between sections. These statements are simple and engaging guiding audience through the story with anchor points. Apart from this, I also focused on design elements that helped me minimize visual distractions for the audience and expanding on the newly identifies stakeholders in my call to action.

References

Apart from everything that is being mentioned above, below are the resources that I have referenced for this story.

1. CPDC, "CMU First destination outcomes". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

2. Carnegie Mellon University. "Counseling and Psychological Services (CaPS)". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

3. American Psychological Association. "Stress in America 2022TM". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

4. American Psychological Association. "More than a quarter of U.S. adults say they’re so stressed they can’t function". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

5. American Psychological Association. "Stress in America 2020TM". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

6. Mary Christie Institute. "The-Mental-Health-and-Wellbeing-of-Young-Professionals-Survey". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

7. The Harris Poll. "Stress in America October 2022 Topline Data". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

8. IPSOS. "Majority of adults report experiencing high levels of stress in past year". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

9. Business Insider. "11 American work habits other countries avoid at all costs". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

10. HBR. "The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

11. World Health Organization. "Long working hours increasing deaths from heart disease and stroke: WHO, ILO". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

12. Cleaveland Clinic. "5 Side Effects of Working Too Much". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

13. Compare Camp. "61 STRESS STATISTICS: 2020/2021 FACTS, CAUSES & EFFECTS". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

14. The American Institute of Stress. "What is Stress?". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

15. Healthline. "Everything You Need to Know About Stress". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

16. National Health Service. "10 stress busters". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

17. Mayo Clinic. "5 tips to Manage Stress". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

18. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. "Coping with Stress". Accessed October 9th, 2023.

19. Cleveland Clinic. "Stress". Accessed October 9th, 2023.