3. Design for everyday life

Recommendation 3 - Design statistics for everyday life

Many statistical offices already use distinctive design to give official statistics a look and feel of a branded product. Design is much more than logos, typography and graphics – it is about keeping users of statistics engaged with our statistics and improving their usability. NSOs should improve ease of use and ease of access to statistics, for instance:

• Data are everywhere, statistics are not. We should encourage a more open access to non-confidential statistics so that they can be used in various devices, apps and analytical tools by the private sector. This does not mean that everything should be available free of charge. NSOs’ resources are limited and they cannot pre-compute all possible data combinations. Therefore, chargeable statistical services could be provided where the service is tailored to individual data needs. This also promotes wide use of existing datasets. NSOs also need to translate raw data into information and develop new kinds of products that people may use in their daily lives. Greater emphasis needs to be put on digital communication, such as user-centred design and user friendly interfaces, and increasing the use of infographics, data visualization tools, stream of articles, social media posts and tweets. These services should be interactive to encourage feedback and development ideas from users.
• Encourage design innovation and engage users in developing new products and services. Use grants and competitions to create incentives for staff to come up with ideas for new designs to unlock the value of statistics. Set up catalyst projects to experiment with new thinking. Send your design innovations to open competitions to win awards from the media, the academia, the private sector or other stakeholders. Announce an award competition in statistics: statistical Olympics or “Hackathons” to invite programmers, software developers, graphic and interface designers and project managers to collaborate intensively on product development. NSOs have also done beta launches of new products so that customers can provide feedback which feeds into new iterations of the product.
• Users look for data points to answer their specific questions. Too often statistics are presented in ways that are not easy to understand. Users no longer have the time to browse through massive data tables or printed publications. They are becoming impatient and are looking for quick answers. We need to re-engineer access to statistical information, and consider, for example, creating “Stats engine” services to provide statistical figures as answers to users’ questions and develop the use of geospatial tools. Statistics should be repackaged and disseminated by topic, population group or geographic area rather than by data source or collection.