Last year I was part of a team in the Visualizing Marathon 2011: Sydney! A bunch of students across disciplines as varied as computer science, statistics, industrial design and visual communication came together in teams to visualise the problem laid out for us. Part of a global challenge across 5 cities, each city handed participants a challenge unique to their region and community. Ours?
The Challenge: Visualize the relationship between Australia’s demographics and the health care workforce. What are the current trends and specific stress points? As the population changes, how will the workforce need to respond? How does an overburdened workforce affect the country’s health?
With just 24 hours to come to grips with the data, the problem and come up with a deadly data visualisation, Tiia, Josephine and myself threw ourselves into it.
We were one of two teams awarded an honourable mention.
Our work wanted to illustrate the large amounts of data that explain the issue and help people come to grips with it. We created an illustrated infographic in just 24 hours that used metaphors around ‘growing pains‘ to show how the forecast changes to our population over the next twenty years will increase stress on a healthcare system that already under-supports people in rural areas and Indigenous Australians.
Interested in the process work?
Additional Credits: Tiia Metzke, Josephine Lie.