Use what you learned in answering question four–what are the habits of the people you are trying to reach?–to figure out the right platform and the ideal format for a report. The design thinking process requires you to immerse yourself in the experience of those who you have identified as actors. How and where do they consume information? What do they see as credible? How might they incorporate elements of this report into their own policy making or advocacy? Through what devices do they tend to consume information?
Once you know which platforms and constraints you’re creating for, you’ll have an easier time identifying the formats that will be most useful to the decision makers you’re trying to reach.
As part of this effort, we conducted a survey of ILO constituents, partners and similar groups about how they use the data the ILO generates. While the sample size was small (we had 75 responses to the survey), it was helpful to see that constituents were using the data in smaller, “bite-sized” pieces, and rarely drawing on complete reports.
Also, while many said they draw on data to work with decision makers or journalists, most (58 percent) said they were sharing the data with advocacy groups. The most common uses of data were presentations (74.7 percent), and in meetings or direct conversation with policymakers. Fact sheets also figured strongly into distribution tools.
The survey findings suggest that while the large reports are helpful, they are most often broken into smaller pieces and shared with others who will carry the message to decision-makers.
Some formats to consider:
Report: Reports that share complete data sets are useful when you’re communicating with experts who will want access to the data sets themselves, or who need to know how the data were gathered and analyzed. For those who need to know that the data are irrefutable because they’re using the data to make policy decisions, a comprehensive report is absolutely necessary.
But a vulnerability of these kinds of data-intensive reports is that the number of people who require and consume this form and richness of data is small. In 2014, the World Bank looked at how many times their reports had been downloaded. They found that just 13 percent had been downloaded 250 times or more. Nearly a third had never been downloaded. And, dishearteningly, 87 percent were never cited. So, while reports play an important role in accountability and credibility, they’re likely not the best way to help people make critical decisions that will lead to the end of child labour and forced labour. For those who do rely on entire reports, comprehensive raw data can also be quite useful. In fact, several respondents to the survey made this very point.
Reports can be far more compelling and effective when they include the following elements:
Narrative
Contextual imagery
Clear calls to action
Brights spots–examples of approaches that worked elsewhere that are relevant to the specific challenges defined in the report.
Dashboard: a dashboard is useful when you have the ability to update your data regularly. State and international governments use dashboards of positive cases and positive testing percentages, along with intensive care unit capacity to make decisions about when it is safe to reopen during COVID-19. These dashboards are useful tools because data about positive and negative case loads, mortality and ICU capacity were collected and updated daily, and they make the specific data officials need to make decisions easily available. Because these are also easily interpreted by people who aren’t trained epidemiologists or statisticians, they’re useful for building public support for policies that will reduce spread–or for cautious reopening.
Fact sheet: Fact sheets are most useful when they’re narrowly focused and can help someone get quickly up to speed on an issue and gain enough insight to make a decision or seek additional insight that will help them make that decision. They’re especially useful in one-on-one meetings, or as a resource for advocates who might be engaging decision makers and need to draw on the organization’s credibility. Here’s a template for creating a compelling one.
Organize your fact sheet around a single point, and include a brief but compelling story, a chart with a carefully written caption that connects the data to the narrative, and provides additional data points that provide supporting insights. The strongest fact sheets bring together data, potential solutions, narrative and calls to action. Clearly title and brand your fact sheets.
Infographics and Data Visualizations: A compelling chart can do a lot to contextualize a single data point, or bring together data in a way that helps decision makers make sense of related data. Well-crafted and captioned charts are useful in fact sheets, presentations and as part of social media campaigns. While both infographics and data visualizations serve the purpose of helping people make sense of complex data, infographics are more subjective, and lead people toward a specific decision. Data visualizations are more objective.
While each of these, obviously, is a format specifically used for sharing data, there are other tools to consider that might offer an opportunity to incorporate and share data in compelling ways. These include: stories, memes, video illustrations, personal interactions, speeches and presentations, and in your interactions with the news media.
Slide Decks: With more than half of ILO constituents surveyed saying they use ILO data in presentations, providing data in the form of slide decks can help to extend the reach of insights and also the credibility of the ILO. Provide easily-downloadable slide decks in PDF formats that share data and context around a particular topic.
Videos: Short “explainer” videos are easy to drop into presentations, social media updates and briefing documents.
Blog posts: The ILOSTAT blog shows how to build content around 2-3 charts and a single newsworthy headline. It captures real-time trends and would be even more effective combined with specific calls to action and solutions.
Research Briefs: Like blog posts, research briefs are built around a single, compelling headline and a handful of complementary charts. They’re short–fewer than 750-words–and incorporate storytelling and images.
Use this worksheet to capture your insights about which formats will provide the greatest utility to the people you’re trying to reach.
