Sequence, Sequence… Surprise! How The Guardian's data editor designs for maximum impact

The Guardian's data editor Mona Chalabi's job is to turn data into a story that grabs eyeballs and keeps them on the page. It involves the skills of deep research, curation and presentation.

For Chalabi, it's not just about racking up clicks. In this talk, she demonstrates the power of well-designed information. When a chart designed to help people decide whether or not to get a knee replacement fails (and Chalabi has the data to show this one did – people leave the website immediately), it's a real missed opportunity.

Good design is the solution to information overload because it gives us a way to communicate complex data in immediately accessible ways. For instance, at the moment when a politician says "we're going to spend $X million on a health initiative, most people's reaction is, "well, that sounds like a lot. Is it a lot?" We love how Billion Dollar Gram answers that question, giving context for exactly what it means to spend a billion dollars.