In communications, we spend a lot of time making stuff: writing stories, designing graphics, taking pictures, shooting videos, composing social media posts …. And how do we measure the impact of all that output? There are metrics, of course: clicks, views, likes, shares, time on page, bounce rates, fancy formulas that assign a monetary value… Continue reading Project Review: Empowering Students
Author: John Zhu
Project Review: Celebrating Black History Month
Sometimes things come together as a result of months of planning and a steady, methodical process of creating and refining content. Sometimes, they come together as result of 30-minute, back-of-the-envelope improvisations. A recent interactive package that I pulled together to celebrate Black History Month was definitely the latter. On the morning of February 1, a… Continue reading Project Review: Celebrating Black History Month
Project Review: Illustrating Data Analysis
I recently put together a promotional graphic for a project analyzing data on the graduation and career paths of PhD students. That sentence, plus the name of the project, was essentially the entire project brief, so I had a fair amount of room for getting creative. Of course, there’s always the option of slapping some… Continue reading Project Review: Illustrating Data Analysis
Project Review: The Common Wind
I’ve decided to try something new on this blog. Every so often, I’ll take a look back at a project I worked on. I do this not to show off the piece, but rather because I find it helpful to lay out my thinking process and dissect what I think went well and what could… Continue reading Project Review: The Common Wind
Alexa, What’s A Narrative That Never Goes Out of Fashion?
Businessweek published a big cover story about “eavesdropping” smart speakers last week, complete with a WTF video illustration. I thought the story seemed kind of familiar, so I went digging through some newspaper archives, and sure enough: Here’s the 2012 edition of the story: And 2005: 2004: 1998: 1993: 1991: 1990: And finally, 1964, with… Continue reading Alexa, What’s A Narrative That Never Goes Out of Fashion?