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Recording Digital Business Trends in a Year of Momentous Shifts

2021 Adobe UK | Tech Design

Every year since 2010, multinational software provider Adobe has published its Digital Trends Report: results of an international survey taken by marketing, advertising, e–commerce, creative, and technology professionals. The 2021 edition recorded major technological shifts, accelerated by the previous year’s pandemic. Creative Director Luca D'Ambrosio placed his faith in Accurat & dataviz to communicate momentous changes with ease and clarity. 

Challenge

Adapt bold iconography for data visualizations to show momentous changes in ways of working.

Solution

An interactive, customizable web experience tailored to user needs, plus a suite of high–quality print reports.

Services

UX, UI, and data visualization design; Front–end development

Deliverables

Web interactive; Website; Digital & print report

Process

D’Ambrosio’s team worked with Barcelona-based design studio Vasava to come up with a visual identity for the 2021 report. In initial meetings, we were presented with a collection of shapes to be used as the basis for a data visualization taxonomy. The designs — colorful and crystalline, with highlighted edges and degrees of transparency to convey overlap — would need to be simplified to facilitate the shape–shifting that data visualization would incur. Homing in on color, we reduced the number of aesthetic variables. As a result, both print and digital dataviz are two–toned, for consistency. 

A single, deceptively simple shape — a square partitioned by wavy lines — presented another challenge: How to calculate area without straight delineation? Our developers devised a complex formula to approximate area in proportion to percentage values. 

Outcome

The deployed web experience preserves the vibrancy of Vasava’s original designs and optimizes them for a dynamic interface. Simplified components facilitate faster load times and more fluid navigation, especially on mobile devices. 

Both the Core Report and industry deep–dives — color–coded for easy identification — co–exist in the consolidated webpage, obviating the need to access and sort through multiple papers. Beyond sector, readers can customize the experience based on responses, which can be filtered by job seniority and region. Up to four topics can chosen for analysis and comparison, giving readers the ability to fully customize their experience.

We were looking for an agency that could help us turn data from our Digital Trends Survey to a digital experience. It was important for us to find an expert in data visualization… [Accurat] captured exactly what we asked for in our brief.

Sabina Bonaiuti, EMEA Campaign Marketing Manager

Optimized for mobile.

Our dataviz also appeared in print reports. Pictured: one of a series focused on specific industries.