Walmart LBU Microsite
Nearly 16 million Americans—more than one in ten workers—are employed in the retail industry. Spanning geography, demographics, and career stage, retail work is a tremendously diverse experience. And that experience is evolving, as new technologies and pathways open up.
Walmart, the global retailer, has been making steady and significant investments to meet and shape that future. They have invested heavily into several programs designed to provide improved training, benefits, and mobility for their employees, including Live Better University (LBU). LBU enables employees to pursue education—from trade certificates to college degrees—at a cost of just $1 a day.
Although these programs were already underway, Walmart had struggled to effectively communicate their details and impact. They needed to share the story of their commitment to the modern retail workforce, so they reached out to Beutler Ink. As designers with an acute understanding of business prerogatives, we helped them create a microsite rich with narrative data visualization. Our goal was to enable them to tell the story of these programs in a way that would resonate with key audiences: lawmakers, journalists, and the general public.
How an infographic grew into an interactive microsite
Originally, Walmart had requested help on a standalone infographic that would focus on “education deserts” - areas in which physical access to higher education is scant. As one of the top data visualization agencies in the US, we knew that research was the first step. We dove in, sifting through as much information about the topic as possible. What we discovered was that this story was too big for a conventional infographic. When telling a story with data, it’s critical to follow the information. Good data journalism fits the format to the data, not the other way around.
We saw an opportunity to create a more expansive narrative, tying together education deserts, economic opportunity, higher education, the retail industry, and Walmart’s LBU programs. We drafted a position paper to pitch our idea to Walmart, and they were onboard with pivoting from creating a single infographic to an interactive microsite. Essentially, we would expand from one static graphic to a series of related motion graphics.
Our new deliverables included:
Research
Copywriting
Data Visualization
Motion Graphics
Interactive microsite design & build
Research
We created a research plan, outlining the range of data we would need and the scope of sources in which we might find it. After poring through hundreds of documents, reports, websites, and publications, we compiled an extensive annotated bibliography. This empowered all stakeholders to see, at a glance, which sources we recommend using, how we vetted them, and which narrative points each supported. This became the backbone of the project, guiding the overall structure and narrative.
Copywriting
We worked with the Walmart team to create an outline for the project, making sure to hit the major narrative beats they wanted to touch on and anchoring everything in the research. Once the structure of the microsite was in place, we drafted, polished, and perfected the copy for each page. Working within Walmart brand guidelines, we ensured all copy was as forceful as it was factual.
Data Visualization & Motion Graphics
We designed a series of data visualizations to tell Walmart’s story in a way that would take complex issues and make them easy to understand. Our designers created visualizations that best served the data, and kept viewers engaged. In any infographic design or data visualization, a variety of design approaches is key to that all-important goal—keeping readers scrolling. All told, we designed 19 different visualizations, as well as 6 interactive maps! Taking things up another notch, instead of static graphics, our design team worked with the developers to add motion to the visualizations, adding a dynamic element that keeps viewers interested and highlights key points.
