Spreading the Word

Year: 2009
Team: Sebastian Greger, Jukka Purma , Shanfan Huang
Supervisor: Teemu Leinonen
Coordinator: Mari Tikkanen from M4ID
Partner: Health Action in Crises of WHO

Just like dancing in the chain, design constantly negotiates between creative possibility and institutional limitation. Media Lab Helsinki and Health Action in Crises(HAC) department in WHO, came together to explore creative solutions for their restrictive media usage, in order to better communicate HAC's mission and advocacy through internet.
The concept presented below is part of New Media Concept for WHO, a study project at Media Lab University of Art and Design Helsinki.

Design Process

[+] Click to view process archive.

Solution

1. Concept

concept_2

Click here to try the demo.

The Widget Interface:

Top Section
+ Headline - title of the graph
+ Link to WHO crisis site's page, where there is more information related to this piece.
+ The headline opens to show other available news items.

Middle Section
+ Content as graphs and maps, either provided as images or flash files.

Bottom section
+ Project or crisis info
+ WHO credit info
+ RSS feed
+ Embed Button: opens controls for embedding the tool to another page.

Ideas Behind:

Visualizing Information
+ While most of data published on WHO's site is in Excel sheets, presenting data in a legible format is the key to reaching occasional visitors.
+ A template-driven system eases the effort for creating up-to-date presentations.

Streaming, Not Publishing
+ Presenting content as a constant stream of data is far more effective than updating pages deep in a site.

Embedding: Enable Re-use
+ Multiply the targeted audience
+ Fit the information in various context

2. Value Proposition

+ Increase the transparency of information on WHO site by a streaming data supply

Freeing information from WHO's regular products (situation reports, field research sheets ...etc.) makes it a lot easier to get an up-to-date picture for the audience.

+ Create trust: Seeding a message is more important than controlling the message

For WHO, giving data to the users involves the risk of misuse. Making information available for reuse in a ready format ensures the credibility of the message.
Meanwhile for the audience, having direct access to the most important facts, and being able to freely distribute information can increase their trust for WHO.

+ Using a soft approach to social media within WHO's restrictions

As an UN agency, all information published under the WHO brand has to be verified and approved. This limits the use of user-generated content or collective intelligence. However, the social web can still be utilized for message distribution, which touches WHO's core objective: Advocacy.

3. Use Case

It is recommended to turn on your audio while watching.

+ Data can be fed to the template wherever it is created:
* WHO headquarters
* regional/country offices
* field work station
* trusted partner sources

+ WHO, media and donors can use the streaming data presentation for their own purposes.

WHO web sites

The template can be used in context of the different WHO sites (HQ sites and regional sites, providing access to all the latest information.

Media and Bloggers

Single data views can be embedded directly to related news stories. At the same time, back links to "who.int" provide publicity for WHO’s message as well as promote WHO's image.

Donors and WHO partners

The information can be used in WHO’s partners and donors information offering.