Economist Impact

Safe
Cities
2021

Best Practices / Nominee
Economist Impact

Best Practices

Nominee
"With robust and mature technologies and platforms available, now is the best time to create smart and creative web experiences with seamless device-agnostic user experience as the primary goal." Economist Impact
image description
Q: Can you describe your project and the concept behind it? A: "The Safe Cities Index ranks 60 cities across 76 indicators covering digital, health, infrastructure, personal and environmental security,” explains Naka Kondo (Senior editor, Economist Impact). In the 2021 edition the site has a quiz feature allowing users to benchmark other cities. The Safe Cities project team decided to use a practical storytelling approach — the cities’ rankings shown first, with other features easily accessible in the page.
image description
Q: What influenced your chosen technical approach, and how did it go beyond past methods? A: "We scanned the competitive landscape looking for excellence, found great examples that could be improved, and concepts that would enrich the experience. We purposely set a high bar with delivery risks, to ensure we push the team towards an excellent result,” said Jons Pette (SVP Sales, Economist Impact). "It's challenging — presenting it all in an efficient & visually engaging way," adds Cheryl Fuerte (Creative Producer & Digital Lead).
image description
Q: Tell us about your initial moodboard, wireframe, or prototype. How did things change throughout the process? A: "The content we're presenting are data and facts. To make this program work we had to ensure our designs connect with people at a more human-level. 'Is my city safe?' is certainly a question that connects with people, but in order to get users to engage with the data and content underneath that question, we needed to make it accessible and enticing," explains Pette. The skin/design was really important and had several rounds of changes.

When did you experience a breakthrough or an "a-ha" moment during this project?

It was in 2019 when Pette called on team members and said “Guys, let's do this differently this time.” Kondo agreed, while Joseph Jones (Head of Branded Content) and Fuerte searched and scoured excellent content presentation and engaging experience examples. Pette relayed the plan briefly to the NEC team, who all shared the excitement and supported the idea. The rest is history, with the project gearing for its 2nd Webby.

image description
Q: What web technologies, tools, and resources did you use to develop this? A: The site has been historically built on a WordPress CMS platform with custom HTML5 landing pages. "This combo allows us to create custom interactive features and take advantage of WordPress' mature CMS functionalities so we can easily add new content on the go," explains Fuerte. Adobe XD, AI, Photoshop, and drawing board sketches were all used in prototyping. Collaborative rounds of feedback between Economist Impact and NEC teams ensured success.
image description
Q: How did the final product meet or exceed your expectations? A: The Safe Cities Index website exceeded visitors and our expectations. It delivered a visually exciting landing page experience to the end user which allowed them to understand the results of the Index easily and quickly,” explains Motoyoshi Shichiri (Professional, Integrated Marketing Communication Department, NEC Corporation). Additionally, a benchmarking quiz and a Japanese language option have been seamlessly added to the site.
Q: Why is this an exciting time to create new digital experiences? How does your team fit into this? A: “We have a very talented team at Economist Impact and have a great working collaboration with the NEC team that allowed us to launch this project and get Webby-nominated not once, but twice,” explains Pette. “With robust and mature technologies and platforms available, now is the best time to create smart and creative web experiences with seamless device-agnostic user experience as the primary goal,” adds Fuerte.

Explore

MediaMonks

Netflix DARK

TBWAChiatDay LA

Behind The Record

Wild Forest

François Audouy

Zuleika Arroyo

Black Women Too

Sid Lee / DIgital Kitchen

The Joker’s Escape

NBC News

Trans, imprisoned — and trapped

The National AIDS Memorial

World AIDS Day 2020 - A National Conversation -

AKARU

Avoriaz

GSD&M

U.S. Air Force ECHO

Animal

Life At Spotify

Center for Architecture

Visualize NYC 2021

HAUS

Tillamook

360 Design

Zoonomia

Wonderland

Wonderland

Gigarama

Sing, My District

Nightjar

Discovered Wildfoods eComm Experience

Dogstudio

ZOOX

MediaMonks

Maserati MC20

Cheil Worldwide, Inc

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G series

NYC & Company

The Black Experience in NYC

ESPN

ESPN College Football Tracker

Paradowski Creative

The Sheldon Website

Active Theory

CHILE20

Active Theory

Secret Sky 2020

Hook

YouTube Culture & Trends Report

Hook

Local Guides

Hello Design

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Studio Airport

Emergence Magazine

Athletics

New York Review of Books

R/GA

ESPN House of 98

ThoughtMatter

CENTER Photography 2020 Compendium

Turbulent

Turbulent.ca

IntraCollaborative

Newest Americans

Rotate°

Big Green Egg

Wide Eye

WhiteHouse.gov

Swell Creative Group

Everyone In LA: 2020 Homeless Count

firstborn

Exo

GIPHY

GIPHY

Content Pilot LLC

Chambliss. Bahner & Stophel

Hello Monday

Bartlett Summer Show

Work & Co

Vistaprint Masks

Hello Monday

Virgin Hyperloop

Forbes

Forbes 30 Under 30 2021

MIT Open Learning/Center for Advanced Virtuality

In Event of Moon Disaster

MediaMonks

Frontier Development Lab: Solving NASA’s Toughest Challenges with Google Cloud × Intel

Jam3

ComplexLand

Spring/Summer

Stykka

firstborn

The Leary Firefighters Foundation

Elephant

Elephant Website