The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) tracks the health of 39 million canucks and the health of the systems supporting them. They were bathing in data and needed a good way to present it. At the same time, digital formats were replacing static ones at CIHI. ‘As more of our products become digital, we want our charts to be digital, too,’ they note. In the end, they chose everviz, testing the full spectrum of our interactivity, accessibility and branding tools. Read on to learn how a world-class data viz design team works with everviz to visualize its data.
The challenge
What challenges were you facing prior to using interactive data visualizations?
CIHI produces a lot of charts and tables for a variety of audiences, but the visualizations we traditionally produced for reports and communications were mostly static images placed on the website or within report documents. As more of our products become digital, we want our charts to be digital, too. In particular, we want them to be:
- Interactive: to offer users deeper insights through simple filtering and extra data in tooltips
- Responsive: to offer mobile users a better experience
- Accessible: to offer users with disabilities more than an alternative table
- Shareable: to let users repurpose our charts for presentations and social media
- Engaging: to offer users an immersive, explorative experience similar to what they see in media and other apps/websites
- Usable: to help users make data-driven decisions while keeping charts intuitive and accessible
- Measurable: to help us know what features of charts users interact with, whether users save or export them, and other aspects of use
Moving from static to interactive charts represents a significant advance for CIHI. Interactive charts empower users to explore deeper insights through features like tooltips, zooming and filtering. These interactions enhance user comprehension, promote data-driven decision-making and amplify impact.
“We value the everviz team’s dedication to accessibility and responsiveness to our needs, facilitating the creation of impactful data visualizations.”
How do you use data visualizations?
Broadly speaking, CIHI offers two kinds of visualizations:
- Simple visualizations of smaller data sets to communicate key messages, trends and insights to decision-makers, the media and other high-level users
- Visualizations of large data sets that analysts and researchers can filter and drill down into
For both, we aim to empower users to seamlessly interpret and engage with CIHI’s data.
Our everviz charts were intended to mostly address the first, simpler use; they were designed to be intuitive and quick to create and update, ensuring timely access to accurate information in a user-friendly experience. Interestingly, as soon as we started using everviz, business areas that deal in more complex presentations of data were keen to use it for their larger data sets, too.
When do you consider a data visualization a success?
A successful visualization presents data in a clear and easily understandable manner, avoiding unnecessary clutter or distractions. It should directly address the intended audience’s needs and interests, providing insights that are actionable and meaningful. Accurate representation of data is crucial for building trust and credibility. The visualization should reflect the underlying data without risk of misinterpretation. It should be user-friendly, accessible and compatible with various devices and platforms so we can reach as wide an audience as possible. A successful visualization influences decision-making, sparks conversations or drives action, ultimately leading to positive outcomes and media uptake.
“Moving from static to interactive charts represents a significant advance for CIHI. Interactive charts empower users to explore deeper insights through features like tooltips, zooming and filtering.”
The solution
Why everviz?
We chose Everviz over competitors for several reasons:
- everviz has the best-in-class accessibility features, such as screen reader compatibility and keyboard navigation.
- None of our design team was code-savvy, so we needed a tool that designers could use without coding.
- It offers a wide range of export options, including PDF, PNG, SVG and CSV, making it easy to share and integrate charts into reports or presentations.
- Extensive customization features allow us to tailor charts to CIHI’s brand guidelines and user preferences.
From customizable colour palettes to interactive elements like tooltips and filters, Everviz offers flexibility and versatility, helping us create engaging and informative visualizations that resonate with our audience.
How do you handle chart branding?
everviz enables us to create custom-themed templates using CIHI’s visual identity guidelines. These templates incorporate elements such as colour and typography that align with our organization’s brand identity and accessibility standards. Consistency in design across various visualizations reinforces brand recognition and builds trust among stakeholders. By adhering to branded templates, we ensure that every data visualization reflects our organization’s values, messaging and visual identity.
How was the experience creating accessible data visualizations?
Our collaboration with everviz in creating accessible interactive charts has been highly beneficial. We are working with everviz developers to customize our charts to meet WCAG and Accessibility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act (AODA) standards. Key features like text alternatives for screen readers and the ability to selectively enable/disable specific data points enhanced accessibility. The advanced settings in everviz allowed for further customization of screen reader options and colour contrast. Additionally, the option to toggle the data table visibility beneath the chart ensured a better user experience. We value the everviz team’s dedication to accessibility and responsiveness to our needs, facilitating the creation of impactful data visualizations.
“Interestingly, as soon as we started using everviz, business areas that deal in more complex presentations of data were keen to use it for their larger data sets, too.”
The results
What have been the results?
We received positive feedback from external users and internal leadership and teams. In the big picture, both perceived that CIHI was advancing to offer the modern, interactive experience that they were used to seeing elsewhere in the sector and in the media. Internally, we received a lot of requests from business areas to present their data and findings with everviz. We also ran a user study as part of our everviz pilot project that showed our users, not surprisingly, are very knowledgeable about charts and data presentation, and got actionable feedback.
Has the goal been achieved?
Our goals are evolving to find solutions for different experiences on the spectrum of visualizations, from simple to complex. everviz satisfies the simple end of the spectrum as expected, and the production team is also using it to produce static visuals in a more efficient way using templates and PDF export. We’ve pushed everviz to its limits trying to make interactive charts with larger data sets that require filtering and have discovered that this can be quite manual and time consuming.
There are also certain chart types we’d like to use that aren’t available, such as small multiples. But along the way we’ve appreciated the hands-on help and back and forth with everviz developers and staff to find solutions to use cases that perhaps were not expected for the tool.
The journey continues.
