Dehavilland ‘uk government policy stakeholders’

April 2020

Client(s): DeHavilland; Port of Dover

Project: n/a

Tools: Adobe Creative Cloud, D3

Categories: Static, Infographic

DeHavilland approached me via LinkedIn in April 2020 to create data visualisation content to support a written report they had produced with one of their clients, Port of Dover. This work was to support, but not be embedded within this report, as was also to be used at internal meeting settings. This work needed to be produced quickly, ideally within a week, and over the Easter bank holiday weekend, giving DeHavilland and I limited time to discuss options for these pieces of data visualisation.

Initial discussions ascertained they wanted something that was beyond the standard bar- and line charts, that would grab and maintain the reader’s interest, conveyed the information correctly and clearly yet the end reader, was easy to interpret and understand and allow key decisions and actions to be made. Finally, the underlying data was still in a state of flux, given the the ongoing changes to the Shadow Cabinet in the House of Commons resulting from the Leadership change in the Opposition Party. As part of the initial approach, DeHavilland provided a rough sketch done in-house of the rough relationships idea they wanted to convey in the final content.

Two hours of discussion on the Friday before Easter aimed to short-list pencil-sketched ideas I had drawn together the night before, after a brief intro chat earlier that day with my main contact at DeHavilland who had initially contacted me via LinkedIn to outline the project needs and timeframe of interest. Three main ideas for potential visualisations were suggested, namely a number of different Sankey chart options (using different primary categories on the lefthand side of the chart), alternative forms of packed circles charts and finally what endearingly came to be known as ‘Elephant’ charts (note: at various points through the design and creation process each of us involved in this project ‘saw’ different animals as the drafts and final versions developed, from elephants, to crocodiles), and taking inspiration from Nadieh Bremer’s project on Adyen’s Shareholder Report.

The visual forms finally selected where then iterated into more polished drafts over the next 24 hours using Adobe Illustrator to inform the client a better impression of how the final content would look, using initial suggestions for colour palettes, geographic divisions and groupings, pro forma labelling and alternative layouts. On from here, ideas and improvements were rapidly discussed, refined and iterated to the finished deliverable visualisations.