Summary

Part I 1️⃣

My project started relatively broad with the topic initially being ‘How Working Remote Affected Productivity’. I started with creating a story about how when the pandemic began, people’s work styles shifted as they moved to remote and hybrid models. I discussed how remote work first increased productivity by reducing commuting time and providing flexibility, but it eventually revealed issues including burnout, a lack of work-life boundaries, and decreased collaboration.

These are the steps I started with for Part I:

Next, I worked on a Reader’s objective to understand how this topic affected both managers and employees and what they can do to maintain productivity in the workplace.
I also created a story arc for my project and brainstormed about how I wanted the story to flow and its call to action.
Next, I started working on some initial sketches and infographics to help narrate my story. I divided up these sketched in 3 parts: setup, conflict, and resolution to build my story.
I identified the tools I would use to create various story elements, such as Shorthand for presenting, Tableau for visualizations, and Canva for creating custom infographics to support the story.
I wrapped up the first part by specifying call-to-action items (here, it was suggestions for companies/managers and people to increase productivity in hybrid or entirely remote work settings). The in-class feedback definitely helped with polishing up the story line and visualizations.

Part II 2️⃣

Based on in-class feedback, I narrowed down the narrative and story for the project. Now, I created an idea on ‘The Hybrid Work Solution: Balancing Career Growth and Productivity for Early-Career Professionals’. This basically shifted the focus to trade-offs of remote and hybrid work arrangements, with recommendations for early-career professionals. It talks about how diverse work paradigms affect productivity and career success.

For this part, I wanted to create personas (Manager and Graduate Student) to help me refine my storyline.

Changes I made concerning the Audience 🙋🏻‍♀️

I started with having two generic examples- a manager and an employee who wanted to achieve the optimal amount of productivity.
However, after the in-class feedback, these personas very refined and made more specific.
I created 2 personas using Canva where I put together their demographic information, pain points, and goals.
Finally the reader’s objective also changed to this: ‘ As a manager or early-career employee, I want to understand how different work models, affect career development and productivity. I seek practical insights on how to stay productive, engaged, and facilitate career growth in these work environments.’
This was a pivotal shift in my story arc and call to action.

Some Other Changes:

I also created more visualizations in Tableau and high-fidelity wireframes/infographics for my new story.
The user review protocol where I identified interviewees and created a script (questions) was pretty helpful as I got detailed feedback from 3 people who matched my actual personas. I interviewed 2 graduate students and 1 manager. This helped me figure out what changes I needed to implement and refine my visualizations.
Next, I started by laying out the initial storyboard draft in Shorthand.
The second round of in-class peer feedback helped identify several key takeaways I planned to accommodate in Part III to help the audience understand the story better.

Part III 3️⃣

For this final deliverable, I focused on feedback provided by the professor, classmates, and my user reviews.
The changes I made were centered around the following:

Finalizing what specific visualizations/infographics I wanted to highlight during my presentation.
Modifying the Tableau visuals to match the Shorthand format.
Changing the story’s arrangement to make the flow seem more logical.
Re-aligning and adding chart components to improve readability.
Removing unnecessary infographics that did not communicate anything extra.

Adding a final call to action based on new information:

Adopt Hybrid Work: Encourage managers to implement hybrid work models that balance flexibility with structured in-office collaboration to boost engagement and productivity.
Foster Team Connections: Promote regular in-person or virtual team interactions to strengthen workplace relationships, reducing isolation and burnout in hybrid settings.
Leverage Flexibility for Productivity: As an employee, use the flexibility of hybrid work to design a schedule that maximizes your productivity, balancing focused remote work with in-person networking.
Focus on Career Development: Use hybrid work to your advantage by seeking development opportunities, ensuring continuous career growth in a flexible work model.

Final Data Story 📖

Link - Data Story (Shorthand)

Title - The Hybrid Work Solution: Balancing Career Growth and Productivity for Early-Career Professionals

This story is based on Final Project Part 1 & Final Project Part 2.

Design Decisions 🎨

In terms of the design, I wanted to keep it relatively straightforward and maintain the story-arc flow (Setup, Conflict, and Resolution). For this reason, I chose a timeline structure in Shorthand. I synced the visualizations and graphics to the timeline sections:

Rise of Covid
The Difficulties
Rise of Hybrid Work

In the data story, I also included a quick introduction and personas to help explain who the Target Audience was. Finally, I ended with a Call-To-Action for both my persona types.

References

Name	Description
Microsoft Work Trend Index	Provides global insights into how remote work impacts productivity and employee engagement.
Gallup Employee Wellbeing Report	Offers data on employee wellness and mental health, focusing on how burnout affects productivity in remote work.
Buffer State of Remote Work Report	How remote workers from around the world feel about remote work, the pros/cons (2020-2023).
Google Trends	- How public interest and concerns around productivity, mental health, and hybrid work have evolved. - Dataset for relevant search terms.
Statista	- Work from home charts/statistics. - Dataset for struggles of working remotely.
Forbes article	Remote Work Productivity vs in-office.
Stanford article	Measuring drop in productivity during and post covid.
MentorCliq	Definitive Mentorship Statistics and Research for 2024.

Go back to Home page 🏠

Part I: Project Outline and Brainstorming/Sketches

Part II: High-Fidelity Visuals and User Research

Part III: Final Deliverable

Data Story on Shorthand

Data-Visualization-Projects