The Challenge
In their own words, Project Diane is a biennial demographic study that provides a snapshot of the state of Black Women Founders, and the startups they lead, in the United States. The company behind Project Diane — digitalundivided — needed a visual solution to share their data in a manner that would be presented clearly.
The Solution
As a team that works with data regularly, digitalundivided came to the table with a solution already in mind: a dynamic interactive map. The map of the U.S. would allow users to switch between specified data points by states. Following this map would be a deeper dive into a handful of key data points with customized data visualizations. Our goal was to bring that vision to life.
The Drafts
Content comes first at Killer. Before we begin to bring a project to life visually, we try to lock in the copy. With an interactive, we add in a few notes for future application, such as “link” or “popup on hover,” but this is primarily about the words and their order. One key to success was a collaborative document with all stakeholders, which allowed us to fine-tune the language together in real time.
If the content is the ink, the wireframe is the blueprint drawn from that ink. Using an online prototyping tool, we laid out all the content and proposed visuals to give digitalundivided a sense of how the final interactive would be structured within both desktop and mobile experiences. During this phase, we couldn’t quite lock in the visual direction, though we were close. This was an ongoing communication point, ensuring that we would eventually land in the right place.
Soon after, our design team filled in the missing details with artwork. During this phase, a few content changes became necessary. Fortunately, a clear line of communication made what can sometimes slow down or spin a project off course instead go smoothly. Following the artwork, we began to code the interactive landing page, troubleshooting amongst ourselves first, then together with digitalundivided.
Communication is Key
As with many collaborative creative projects, communication is important not only between both parties, but internally as well. This ensures both sides have a clear picture of expectations and a better perspective on the project’s goal trajectory. For this specific project, we saw a total of 1,106 messages across our company’s internal communication tool from only 12 individuals in a little less than a month.
