How I learned to stop worrying and love buzzfeed

2. Figure out what you can bring
0 Learn how to do what your colleagues think is
amazing but have no idea how to make
0 It doesn’t matter if it’s secretly easy peasy
@NatalieScox
‘Branded infographic
template’
(Aka two rectangles on top
of each other with an excel
pie chart on top of a free
light bulb vector*)
*A shape that doesn’t
pixelate, get ‘em free by
googling ‘free vector of x’

3. Then get your team on board
0 Once your team know you can do cool stuff, they’ll
give you a heads up on the good bits and will stop you
barking up the wrong tree
0 Lead by example first with new platforms and
concepts, if your team like the results make them
aware of the time frame
@NatalieScox

4. Reassurance is key
0 Explaining what Buzzfeed
is to your Director is a bit
cringe but ultimately
worth it
0 Team need reassurance
that tweeting this stuff
won’t make them look
stupid in front of their
peers
0 Buzzfeed, Storify,
Creativist, Videoscribe,
are all brilliant free (or
free trial) platforms
Legit data
Dancing
Carlton
@NatalieScox

5. Justifying the time it takes
0 You’re reaching people
who don’t seek you out
via your website or read
to the end of the article
0 And if you can pack an
aesthetically pleasing
punch, elicit an
emotional response, and
do it when it’s topical
the RTs will speak for
themselves
@NatalieScox

6. How to do it in house
0 Tutorial videos taught me everything I know in terms
of design (YouTube, Adobe website, Lynda)
0 But peer review was really important along the way,
via team members and WonkComms - the first draft is
never going to be the best
0 Try to do as much as you can for free, but sometimes
you have to pay…
@NatalieScox

7. Your toolkit
@NatalieScox
Cough up for Adobe
Creative Cloud,
monthly payment and
you get all their apps
Free database of icons,
use for infographics
For
livestreaming
events
Animation
presentation
Amalgamating
online content

8. But when you need to look
elsewhere, bluff it
0 You don’t need to learn how to code, you do need to
learn the language
0 Learn a few phrases- D3 is the open source (free!)
javascript library (say that like you know what it
means) that’s used to make a lot of interactive dataviz
0 Where next? Website and report redesign! Mobile
sites are so last year, responsive design the future
@NatalieScox

9. Thanks!
Natalie.cox@resolutionfoundation.org
@NatalieScox