How
UX&Data
Storytelling
Can Shape Policy
Thinking Machines is a full 
stack data science consultancy, 
with offices in Manila Philippines,
and San Francisco, California. 
We solve business problems 
with data.
About Me

SCALE:
1 circle = 1 hour
1 column = 1 week
Graphic Design
Data Visualization
UX Design
Web Design
Motion Graphics
Today:

01 Meet the Policy Makers
02 The Long Journey of Design Policy 
in the Philippines
03 How UX Fits Into Data Storytelling
04 Case Study 1: Road Safety
Designing as a Citizen
05 Case Study 2: Road Budget Tracking
Designing with the Government
01
Meet the
Policy Makers
David Yap
The road to hell is paved
with bad data.
Reina Reyes
02
The Long Journey 
of Design Policy
In the Philippines
Design
Design
"A way of thinking and a problem-
solving process that is user-
centered, collaborative, multi-
disciplinary and makes ideas
tangible, whether in the form of
products, services or
experiences."
RA
10557
The City of
Good Design
1239 km
The road to good design is
full of red tape
03
How UX Fits Into
Data Storytelling
=
=
It’s not just about making it pretty
People feel threatened by
very large numbers
Facts + Feelings = 
Data Storytelling
Visualization Analysis Framework
problem
driven work
Anthropology/
Ethnography/
Psychology

Design
Computer Science
Tamara Munzner, Information Visualization
What kind of data is relevant to our users?
04
Case Study: 
Road Safety
Designing as a Citizen
Get the most bang
for your data
02 Road Danger Story Part 1
Road Danger Story Part 1
02 Road Danger Story Part 1
02 Road Danger Story Part 1
02 Road Danger Story Part 1
02 Road Danger Story Part 1
02 Road Danger Story Part 1
02 Road Danger Story Part 1
Road Danger Story Part 2
02 Road Danger Story Part 2
02 Road Danger Story Part 2
02 Road Danger Story Part 2
02 Road Danger Story Part 2
02 Road Danger Story Part 2
02 Road Danger Story Part 3
Road Danger Story Part 3
02 Road Danger Story Part 3
02 Road Danger Story Part 3
02 Road Danger Story Part 3
It’s not just a graph, 
it’s a graphic
NATHAN YAU
05
Case Study: 
Road Budget Tracking
Designing with the Government
Roads are the arteries
of a country
The Philippines will
spend P766.5 billion
on roads this year
Are the roads being built?
Multiple Agencies 
+
Multiple Databases
+
No Unique ID
How do you follow 

one project from the first
database to the last?
algorithm
The Matching Algorithm

✦ Text Normalization
the process of transforming text into a single canonical form that it
might not have had before
✦ Text Vectorization
an algebraic model for representing text documents as vectors of
identifiers, such as, for example, index terms
✦ tf-idf 
short for term frequency–inverse document frequency, is a numerical
statistic that is intended to reflect how important a word is to a
Your idea is only as good
as how you present it
The Matching Algorithm
The Matching Algorithm
The Matching Algorithm
Initial User Testing
Insights
✦ Personas: Government Officials, Employees, 

Accountants, Journalists
✦ Officials: Importance of Budget Integrity and Faithfulness
Feature: Dashboard to look at the big picture
✦ Employees: Checking on Individual Projects
Feature: More pictures
✦ Journalists: Looking for stories for their beat
Feature: Maps
The City of
Good Design
1239 km
In Summary
✦ Data Visualisation isn’t just about making pretty charts, 

it has its own language.
✦ Making your visualisation more accessible and seen by
more people is good. But if it miscommunicates, it can be
worse than not being seen at all.
✦ Data can be cold, add emotion to humanise your story.
✦ Design should happen before data is processed.
✦ Who, What, Why, How?
#makefactscoolagain
Read more data
stories on our blog
stories.thinkingmachin.es
Follow Us
/thinkdatasci
@thinkdatasci
✦
✦

Lightning Talk #9: How UX and Data Storytelling Can Shape Policy by Mika Aldaba