Thinking Visually for Advocacy

In September 2010, SMEX hosted a series of workshops on visual thinking for advocacy with John Emerson, a graphic designer, writer, and programmer who has spent the better part of the past 15 years exploring how to use design to promote social justice and social good. During the workshops, John compiled a list of tools for further investigation and experimentation in the realm of information visualization for advocacy.

Background Materials

Cover image of visualizing information for advocacy

John Emerson is the author and designer of this popular booklet, which collects many powerful and inspirational examples of how to use visualization in a range of contexts. The booklet was published by Tactical Technology Collective, an international NGO that focuses on visualization as a tool for advocacy.

Similar in format to the booklet above, this guide brings together several examples of how activists and NGOs have used maps to achieve their goals.

This new toolkit, also from Tactical Tech, outlines 10 ways in which NGOs and activists can effect change. Not all of the tactics relate directly to visual thinking, but many of them do. Check out especially Tactic 3: Visualise Your Message and Tactic 7: How to Use Complex Data. Also, please note that SMEX has translated these materials to Arabic.

Really getting into maps? Check out this O’Reilly guide by Andrew Turner.

Working with Data

The web-based application that Hans Rosling uses to show that some of our common assumptions about development aren’t exactly true. Many other Gapminder visualizations are hosted here.

Google Chart Tools is a free web service that lets you add live charts to any web page.

With Google public data explorer you can draw from vast stores of public data (including from Lebanon) create your own Hans Rosling-style animated data presentations as well as browse those made by others.

This site allows visitors to upload and share data sets, enabling “a new social kind of data analysis.” You can not only create interactive data visualizations but also critique the success of visualizations created by others.

A business-oriented application that helps people “see and understand their data.”

Please note that, on December 2, 2010, to the deep dismay of free speech advocates, Tableau Software took down data visualizations of the Wikileaks cables, at the request of US Senator Joe Lieberman.

Mapping

This application, developed by John, allows you to create clickable, zooming Flash maps colored by data from an external text file.

StatPlanet is a browser-based interactive data visualization and mapping application. Use it to easily and rapidly create basic interactive Flash maps as well as feature-rich infographics.

Open Street Map is wiki for maps. Volunteers from around the world contribute new information to the maps. You can also export the map data to create your own maps.

Walking Papers lets people contribute to Open Street Map (OSM) with little more than a computer, printer, pen, and paper. You print out the map of your area as it is on OSM, update it according to your local knowledge, scan and send it back and wait for the OSM to be updated. You can also use the papers as drafts for updating OSM yourself.

With a Google account, you can create your own Google maps.

This project provides free and open source GIS-mapping software.

Part of Geo Community, these pages host free GIS data. You also have the option to sign up for a paid, premium download account.

A platform for citizen reporting and mapping, often used in the context of natural disasters, elections, and violence.

Visual Thinking and Storytelling

FreeMind is a free desktop tool for creating visual “mind maps” much like the tactical map we created together.

A paid mind-mapping service.

PDFCreator is a free tool to create PDF files from nearly any Windows application that can print.

Scribus can be used to create layouts for newsletters, stationery, posters, training manuals, technical documentation, business cards and other documents that need flexible layout or sophisticated image handling. It has precise typography controls and image sizing not available in current word processors. Available for Windows, Linux and Mac.

Image Creation & Editing

GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Programme. Typical uses include creating graphics and logos, resizing and cropping photos, changing colors, combining images, removing unwanted image features and converting between image formats. GIMP can also be used to create animated images. GIMP is a powerful image editor supporting advanced image editing, manipulation and professional graphics creation. For Windows, Linux and Mac.

GIMPShop is a version of the GIMP image editor modified to be more user- friendly for Photoshop users. The interface is adapted to look and feel more like Photoshop and act more like a single, unified program. Available for Windows and Mac.

Inkscape is a vector graphics editor with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand or CorelDraw. It supports rendering of shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, transparency, transformations, gradients, patterns and grouping. Available for Windows, Linux and Mac.

Free Office Suites

OpenOffice is an office productivity suite. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager and drawing program. OpenOffice also works with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office and open formats such as .odt. OpenOffice runs on Linux and Windows and on Mac OS X under X11.

NeoOffice is a fully-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and drawing programs) for Mac OS X. Based on OpenOffice, NeoOffice has integrated dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office.

Ajax13 is a web-based office suite that allows you to create and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Ajax13 also has a sketch tool to do basic diagrams and a media player. The tool supports files in a variety of formats.

Google Docs provides a host of office applications (including forms and drawing) and, like Ajax, allows you to share them with others. You must have a Google account to create docs.