Emoji data threads

Visualising the improvements of the public healthcare system on social media

Healthcare systems and their professionals have been under extreme pressure during the Covid-19 crisis globally. After the first wave, while the world came to a stop, the Catalan Health Department made great efforts to improve the attention given to patients and wanted to communicate it to citizens through their social media.

How to bring healthcare topics closer to people visually

The data that they asked us to help communicate was quantifiable data, numbers about specific improvements of the system to be better prepared for the next Covid-19 waves. We saw a need to do so using a language that was close to the people. We wanted to put citizens at the center to explain how this data speaking about improvements could impact their lives.

The result was a set of data visualisations using emojis in the form of carousels that as people swiped, revealed the before and after of different topics (such as the number of ICU beds, protective equipment for professionals or breathing machines), ending with a statement of the effect those improvements had for all. The data threads conveyed a message that could hardly be seen as a show-off from the system, but as measures to reinforce and secure the common wellbeing.

Illustrating the impact of the digital divide