Web_Designer_UK__May_2018

FORM AND FFUNCTION
MAKING THE CONNECTION
one.or /makin -the-connection/index-en.html
Shortlisted for the
Kantar Information is
Beautiful Award 2017
Right now, more than half
the world is not connected
to the internet, and almost
75 per cent of Africa is
offline. Why does this
matter? For people living
in the poorest parts of the
world, access to the
internet isn’t a luxury —
it’s life-changing.
ONE, a campaigning and
advocacy organisation, is
currently rolling out several
programs to address this
digital gap. It asked
FFunction to create an
interactive data
visualisation that would
highlight some key findings
and contextualise them in
an engaging, shareable way.
As part of ONE’s larger
Poverty is Sexist campaign
that calls on communities,
governments and private
sectors around the world to
help impoverished women
within their countries, this
site illustrates how access
to the internet and digital
media can empower people
in developing countries,
especially women.
Displayed on a single
scrolling page, the site
presents two main
visualisations: one shows
the current rate of internet
usage in African countries,
and another further
breaks down the first viz
by gender to show the
disparity between women
and men who use the
internet in Africa and
around the world. A form
at the bottom of the page
directs visitors to sign the
Poverty is Sexist petition.
FFunction’s design team
decided the best way to
contextualise the data
would be to contrast how
the internet improves the
quality of life in the
wealthiest parts of the
world, compared with the
most poverty-stricken.
For example, every
month, over 560 billion text
messages are sent worldwide.
Of course, these can
be useful for chatting with
friends or receiving
appointment reminders.
But in sub-Saharan Africa,
text messages can enable
women who live far from a
doctor to receive advice on
how to have a safe and
healthy pregnancy.
Poverty is sexist — in
so many ways, girls and
women are hit harder and
have fewer opportunities,
and access to the internet is
no different. Women in the
poorest countries are
almost a third less likely
to have access to the
Internet than men, and
the gap is increasing.
Visualising this data and
putting some context
around it helps engaged
citizens, journalists and
policymakers to understand
the problem in both broad
strokes and granular detail,
and, hopefully, take action.
Above Digging deeper into the data, reveals personal stories
that place a human face on this data-based project
The business case for working with a
client can have many components. As
FFunction doesn’t generally do spec work,
but how does it decide which clients to
work with? Audrée explains the studio’s
approach: “We have turned down projects
because the timeline is too tight, or
doesn’t fit with the other projects already
in our pipeline. We’re a boutique agency
and intend to remain that way. The upside
of working at this scale is that one of the
directors is always personally involved in
any given project. Crucially, we stay
connected to the workflow. The downside
is that project planning can be kind of like
a game of Tetris because our human
resources are limited.
“Historically we have also refused
projects where our added value is
minimal, like branding or website design
or PowerPoint design. There are so many
extremely competent branding agencies
out there that should win those contracts
instead. Why choose dataviz specialists
for that?”
We’re a
boutique
agency and
intend to
remain that
way. The
upside of
working at
this scale is
that one of
the directors
is always
personally
involved in
any given
project
Audrée concludes: “And this is
somewhat delicate, but we’ve also
turned down projects from clients whose
businesspracticeswedisagreewithin
somefundamentalway.Lastyear,for
example, we were approached to do a
project by a cigarette company. The
budget was good, but the idea of having
acigarettemanufactureronourclient
roster alongside the Canadian Cancer
Society?Itdoesn’tlookright,andit
certainly doesn’t feel right.”
Oftenanagencyorstudiowillbecome
knownforacertaintypeofwork.For
FFunction, its approach means its
clients are looking to use their data to
communicate their messages. Sébastien
outlines one project that spoke to
FFunction’s design sensibilities: “One of my
favourite projects is still HP Earth Insights.
It applied a Hewlett-Packard analytics
platform to research provided by
Conservation International, an NGO
dedicated to the protection of the planet
and its resources. FFunction’s role was to
package data that charted fluctuating
biodiversityinkeynationalparksnear
the equator. HP Earth Insights contains
everything I like about dataviz. There’s
an interesting scientific dataset, a
data-driven narrative, free exploration
that lets users make their own findings
and gorgeous photos overlaid with
simple, but rich charts.”
With specialist design needs and client
data that can be presented in many forms,
the tools that FFunction uses are varied.
“We tend to be early adopters of new tools
and plugins,” says Audrée. “There are new
ones coming out all the time, and we like
to give them a try. We draw user flows in
OmniGraffle. Also, we use the Adobe suite
a lot (naturally), and Sketch for user
interfaces. We prototype using Invision
and Craft, and the designers send their
files to the devs via Zeplin. We also sketch
on old-fashioned paper a lot.”
Sébastien also comments: “I think that
good information design demands a
certain level of customisation, which is
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