Joint Cochrane Australia/Cochrane Public Health Network
Infographics Project Proposal

Brief background:

In May 2019 Cochrane Australia delivered an infographic pilot project with three prototypes and a project rationale (all featured in the website tabs above). The pilot was presented to the KT Products Working Group and a small group of Cochrane contributors from around the globe. The response to the prototypes was universally positive and enthusiastic. A snapshot of feedback is included at the end of this proposal.

Cochrane Australia in partnership with the Cochrane Public Health and Health Systems Network now seeks funding for the next stage of this project which will see infographics become another valuable and effective way to disseminate Cochrane evidence visually, digitally, and in key languages.

The following plan sets out a road map to facilitate the design, build and launch of a Cochrane ‘infodesk’ (working title) infographics site. The site would provide essential infrastructure to house all future Cochrane infographics - representing value for money and longevity for all infographics produced now and in the future for every Cochrane Network.

Project plan:

Cochrane Australia proposes to work in partnership with the Public Health Network to provide proof of concept for Cochrane infographics in different languages, and establish the essential infrastructure and toolkits to be used across the organisation after the completion of this 12 month project.

The key investment and main objective is to build the Infodesk site to house and feature an evolving grid of clickable review tiles, as illustrated below. Initially the site will feature a suite of 6 new and existing Public Health review infographics (one from each of the 6 review groups that make up the network), followed by the addition of infographics from across the Cochrane Library over time. The reviews will be selected in partnership with a Network and chosen for their impact on policy and practice.

Each review tile will click through to a review page featuring a set of sharable evidence assets, including:

• an interactive infographic linked to the review

• a toolkit with shareable social media assets

• iframe code for journalists and third party websites to reproduce our infographics on their sites (the entire infographic or just selected components)

Visually the design will be clean, super-contemporary, interactive and responsive to any device.

The review infographics will be searchable by categories/filterable user tags of interest (eg. obesity, smoking, age group, review group). 

This mockup below shows how this would look - just imagine each coloured square would link to a review infographic and related evidence assets…

Benefits of this approach:

The benefits of developing and publishing Cochrane infographics through this approach are:

• the ability to reach, engage with and respond to larger and more diverse audiences around the globe.

• the capacity to expand translations of Cochrane evidence in collaboration with the Cochrane Translations Team.

• the ability to incorporate infographics as a visual feature within the new Cochrane Library review format and take our place at the leading edge of interactive high-quality digital design and audience engagement.

• the use of ‘iframes’ to solve the problem of review updates flowing to KT products - this technology means any changes to infographics centrally will be replicated automatically wherever they are published online. This means they are ‘future proof’, have longevity and are increasingly cost-effective over time.

• proof of concept and increased accessibility/shareability of evidence assets - as the infographics evolve, so too will the shared toolkit of icons, social media graphics and a companion how-to design style guide ensuring the Cochrane community can make use of central, high quality design assets and guidance for their own dissemination products.

• an ongoing collaborative process - each infographic would be produced in close consultation with the Public Health Network, followed by regular production of infographics by other Networks at the conclusion of this phase of the project. Processes and protocols for infographic will be road tested over this first 12 months, and rolled out thereafter.

• compliance with all aspects of new KT Dissemination Principles and Checklist will ensure rigour and showcase the practical ways KT resources can be used.

• the ability to continuously user-test across the globe in real time and respond in a similarly continuous iterative improvement process. User analytics will also provide real-world evidence about what users spend time looking at, searching for and spending time on - indicating what works, what doesn't and what do we need more or less of.

Project timeframe and deliverables:

This 12 month project would deliver the following:

• A fully customised live beta site with a minimum of 6 interactive review tiles - each with sharable evidence assets including an interactive infographic and iframes, social media assets, podcasts and media releases.
  

• The full English and full Spanish versions of the site would go live after the first six to eight months of the project - featuring a minimum of 6 complete and interactive review infographics (plus the Cochrane Who? explainer infographic).
  

• The site would be designed and built to be geography-responsive in terms of language and content - translation processes and workflows would be developed in consultation with the Cochrane Translations Team. Each of the 6 review infographics would be translated and delivered in key languages in the next phase of the project.
  

• A customised user testing and analytics functionality would enable real-time, global testing and analytics of review infographics – enabling us to accurately monitor and evaluate what works, what doesn’t, how long users spend on a page, what do they visit most/least, want more/less of.
  

• A Cochrane-branded How-To Guide and an evolving library of iconography and artwork for the Cochrane community to use for their own dissemination work.
  

• An evolving library of frequently used explainer content pages for common terms, concepts and issues (for example: what is absolute vs relative risk, why does quality of evidence matter, what is antimicrobial resistance). This would be consistent with the Cochrane KT Common Language Terms.
  

• A full report on the project and recommendations for a process map for ongoing production and central approval of digital evidence assets.

Timeframe and costs:

This project would be completed by a small, nimble team of experts in design, development, user experience and digital communications.

Using an agile approach, the project would be completed in four phases over 12 months.

Details of each phase are included in the project estimates (downloadable below).

The initial big picture time and cost estimates to complete the project are:

Web development and build (external): $145,000 (£ 80,900)

Design/content (Cochrane Australia): $ 97,000 (£ 54,100)

Content advisory/review (Public Health Network): $ 22,500 (£ 12,550)

Project management (Cochrane Australia): $ 30,000 (£ 16,700)

Total: $294,500 (£164,250)

Cochrane Australia and the Cochrane Public Health Network seek $294,500 (£164,250) funding to complete this project in 12 months - after which time the infrastructure to house all future infographics from across all Cochrane Groups will also be completed.

Return on investment (ROI)

Given the depth and quality of analytics, return on investment (ROI) will be simple to measure and evaluate over time.

Testing A/B versions (where you can assess page visits, interactions and dwell times on a review page without an infographic vs the same review page with an infographic) will yield valuable insights.

We can also calculate ROI on a cost-per-page-view basis. For example: 

• The current Cochrane.org page for the Omega-3 for premature birth review averages 4,000 page views per month. At a minimum, very conservative estimate this audience will at least triple with the infographic version of the review (so 12,000 page views per month).

• Using this conservative estimate of 12,000 views per month over 12 months divided by the cost of producing the infographic = 144,000 views per month/$5,000 = 30 cents per view (which gets cheaper over time)

Other positive considerations include:

• the ability to track sites that publish our infographics and build a network of global media outlets that regularly publish our content.

• the likelihood of users spending longer on the page/interacting with the links to the full review, of browsing and discovering other review infographics of interest on the infodesk and/or related Cochrane sites, and the exponential increase in the sharing of infographics and iframes on social media and media sites.

• each infographic can be edited and updated centrally at any time (with the changes replicated anywhere the iframe is published online) - making the infographics ‘future-proof’ and guaranteeing longevity (and ongoing ROI).

• the library of content and design tool kits will evolve, saving Cochrane groups, teams and authors time and resources developing their own graphics.

• the cost of each infographic goes down as the design library grows and production efficiency and know-how is gained.

• ongoing analytics will give exact figures on ROI and audience behaviour over time, and guide the development of the site and future evidence assets.

Project team and governance:

The project team would be based in Australia and include:

Project management, design and content:
Shauna Hurley & Simon Murray (both Cochrane Australia employees)

Project advisory:
Sally Green & Steve McDonald (Co-Directors,Cochrane Australia)
Lisa Bero (Public Health Network)
Juliane Reid (Cochrane translations)
Jo Anthony (Cochrane KT Department)
Chris Mavergames (Cochrane IT Department)

Web development and build: Common Code (TBC)

Design Thinking consultant: Luke Grange (TBC)

The project team would also liaise with the Cochrane IT Team and Wiley to develop interactive tiles on review pages and to specific anchor links within reviews (for instance, so infographics can link straight to relevant parts of reviews like Summary of Findings Tables, or selected graphs or text).

Legal terms and intellectual property (IP) policies around the reproduction of infographics would also need to be developed. Either the central Cochrane Legal Counsel or by Monash University Legal Counsel (on behalf of Cochrane Australia) could oversee this process.

For further information about this proposal, please contact Shauna Hurley, Communications and Engagement Manager, Cochrane Australia - shauna.hurley@monash.edu or +61 400 018 570.

A snapshot of pilot project feedback to date:

‘What a mammoth initiative – I’m impressed to say the least! I think it’s great we’re tackling this unmet need of visualising review findings. I can see this being so much easier to digest than reading the abstract or plain language summary.’
Editor, Cochrane Breast Cancer Group

‘I think these can be very effective indeed in order to improve global attention toward evidence based medicine. It's much more appealing than reading a solid just-text research paper.’
Cochrane author, Iran

‘I am excited to see something from Cochrane looking so professional. I loved the one explaining Cochrane!’
Cochrane contributor, Norway

‘My compliments on this work. I find this very appealing. I really believe this could work.’
Cochrane author, Belgium

‘The visual effect is excellent! Nice job!’
Cochrane author, Taiwan

‘These are great… and lovely infographics.’
Cochrane author, Nigeria

‘I finally get what Cochrane does!’
Cochrane contributor’s family member, Australia