The Dark Side of Net Zero

OVERVIEW

Deloitte Viz Games is a global data visualization competition, where participants have the opportunity to tell a story with data and craft a data visualization based on that year's theme. The winner is selected by a judging panel with topic specialists and data gurus based on 3 criterion: design, storytelling, and analysis.

In 2023, the theme was the Net Zero. On this project, I iterated and executed the overall dashboard design and copywriting. This visualization explores equity and equality, the relationship between wealth and CO2 emissions and the impacts of climate change. My team was ultimately crowned the winner of Deloitte Viz Games 2023 among 375 participants in over 25 countries.

Role

Data Visualization, Dashboard Design, Copywriting

Timeline

Feb 2023 - Mar 2023 (3 weeks)

Team

1 product designer (me)
1 data engineer
1 Tableau developer

Tools

Figma, Miro, Tableau

After our dashboard was chosen as 1 of 4 finalists selected, we presented our final design live on (a virtual) stage to a judging panel that selected a winner based on design, storytelling, and analysis. Our team ultimately won the Deloitte Viz Games 2023 crown.

Approach

Design Process

Throughout the design process, my team and I pivoted several times due to the lack of data availability, technical unfeasibility or to ensure the narrative flow made sense. We went through many working sessions to ensure the story made sense before jumping into the design and wireframes.

Brainstorming Topics

Mapping the data journey

Low fidelity wireframes

The overall dashboard design was inspired by the iceberg theory: as you go deeper into the visualization, you will learn more about Net Zero and what is happening below the surface. I also wanted to connect the design to global warming in that one of the impacts to the environment is glaciers and ice sheets melting.

Key Takeaways

Reflection

This was my first year participating in Deloitte Viz Games! I thought it would be an amazing experience to get outside of my comfort zone, expand my technical knowledge of Tableau's capabilities, as well as get to design more creatively and freely without the constrains from client projects.

I got to build my design around some of Tableau's new features such as the timeline feature, and had such a stimulating experience researching and analyzing the data surrounding net zero.

Since this was our first time participating in Deloitte Viz Games, we underestimated the time it would take to come up with the theme. As a result, I had to rush through the design and copywriting which put us under a lot of pressure.

Despite this challenge, I am so proud of my team and the end result and so happy we could shine light onto a topic that is so important in the current day.