Nicole Brennan.

Civic platformsCase study

Insights & Highlights.

Turning a quarter’s worth of public behavior data into one page anyone can read.

Back to all work
An Insights and Highlights report for USAGov en Español: total interactions with the public, a highlight about voting searches, the top five pages, and the most-clicked emails
Role
Lead designer and editor
Where
USAGov, GSA
Audience
Leadership and stakeholders, technical and not
Result
USAGov’s official quarterly infographic

The problem

Lots of data, and no easy way to say what it meant.

USAGov leadership needed a faster, more adaptable way to track and share how people were using its platforms. The data was large and complex. The report had to be reusable every quarter, engaging to look at, and clear to people who don’t read analytics for a living.

How I approached it

  1. 01Find the story in the dataI reviewed user behavior analytics over time and mapped them at scale on a whiteboard to find the patterns worth telling.
  2. 02Design modules, not a pageFlexible, interchangeable modules, like interactions, a highlight, popular topics, and top pages, that can be recombined for different reporting needs.
  3. 03Edit with the teamI worked with cross-functional teammates to keep the content concise, logically ordered, and true to the data.
  4. 04Build it to lastThe final template was built in InDesign with customizable icons, graphics, and charts so each new quarter is quick to produce.

From whiteboard to template

Mapping the data at scale

Laying every quarter’s numbers out on one board made the connections visible and shaped the narrative, and the modules grew out of what kept recurring.

A large whiteboard of analytics screenshots, notes, and early infographic drafts for different quarters
The data and early drafts, mapped on one board.
Two finished quarterly infographics side by side, Q2 and Q3, built from the same modules
The same modules, two quarters.

Reusable beats beautiful once.

What changed

Insights & Highlights became USAGov’s official quarterly infographic, in English and Spanish. The modular template cut production time each quarter and gave leadership a dependable way to share what people were looking for from their government.

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