From Cradle To Grave
About the CSO
Sakker el Dekkene is a Lebanese NGO that collects data about the various forms of corruption spread across public administration in Lebanon. This data is then mirrored back to the administration and the public in order to raise awareness and engage both parties in a transparent and constructive relationship.
The team
Clockwise from top left: Richard (designer, Lebanon), Amir (designer, Tunisia), Alison (developer, UK), Youssef (designer, Egypt), Wes (mentor, USA), Yara (CSO representative, Lebanon), Jana (data researcher, Lebanon), Matteo (designer, Italy)
About the topic
According to findings of a 2015 survey conducted by SED, the majority of Lebanese have no qualms about participating in corrupt behaviour. Corruption in Lebanon has become the norm and Lebanese citizens are forced to resort to bribery to get the most basic of services.
A look at the data
SED’s database consisted of 1,561 bribery reports. The data was collected via surveys, on-the-ground collection, and reports submitted by individuals using the form available on the SED website. The data ranged from 06-2013 to 12-2014 and included parameters such as location, ministry, institution, procedure, date, bribe, and amount.
ResultsSakker el Dekkene’s (SED) project is an online interactive narrative that tells the story of a Lebanese life in bribes. The narrative follows a “typical” Lebanese person through major milestones in a lifetime and calculates the amount of bribes that could be paid throughout the “cradle-to-grave” scenario.
To combat this complacency, the project adopts a somewhat sarcastic tone of voice, that is specific to the SED’s existing communications and campaigns. By using shock tactics, the team hoped to motivate the target audience by highlighting the significantly culminating amount of bribes paid in a lifetime.
To engage with users, the team added a button after each data visualisation asking the user “Angry yet?”.
Sakker el Dekkene crowdsources reports of corruption and bribery through their website.
Finding the stories
The web developers generated myriad visual representations of the data using RAWGraphs, a free open source website. These table charts, dynamic timelines, bar charts and tree maps gave them a feel for the scope of information at hand.
Once the milestones were pegged down, the team working on the copywriting in SED’s sarcastic style while the designers undertook creating the visual style and the rapid prototyping of the interactivity elements.
To render the bribes amount relatable, the user is shown what could have been done with that money if it wasn’t spent on bribes. In order to make the alternatives plausible, the team drew heavily on insights that are specific to the Lebanese audience: the daily importance of food and the use of personal transportation.
Using RAWGraphs to generate different visual representations of the data.
The team identified the narrative and agreed on the different milestones that would lead the user through the journey of “a life in bribes”.