Visually is an ecosystem for creating, sharing, and exploring data visualizations. It consists of websites for visualizers to create works, viewers to view curated content, and publishers to share content. The ecosystem relies on contributions from visualizers, viewers, and publishers. Visualizers create works, viewers view and share content, and publishers provide funding and share works. The sites aim to meet the needs of each group through features for creation, learning, promotion, and employment opportunities to sustain the community.

1. A Community for Visualization.

2. What is Visually?
An ecosystem for creating, sharing, and exploring data
visualizations.
create.visual.ly
marketplace.visual.ly
visual.ly
blog.visual.ly
visual.ly

3. Community Roles
Without each role, the ecosystem would fall apart.
Viewers
Visualizers
Designers, Developers, Journalists, Animators, Researchers
Publishers

4. Create.Visual.ly
Viewers need to feel engaged.
For viewers, create provides a
place where they can see their
own information in the
infographic format they enjoy.

5. Create.Visual.ly
Publishers need results.
For publishers, create provides
a way to summarize important
metrics, and for big publishers,
it can be a platform for
advertisement.

6. Create.Visual.ly
Publishers need to measure results.
Summarizing information and
delivering it automatically keeps
publishers happy.

7. Visual.ly
Viewers want to see cool stuff.
The main website provides a
curated source of “cool stuff” for
people to browse. This gives
people a good source of
content to share on their social
networks, or just entertainment
when they are bored at work.

8. Visual.ly
Publishers want eyeballs.
Publishers want their content
seen. They paid money to get it
created, and they want as many
people to see it as possible,
both to show it off, and for
advertising.

9. Visual.ly
Visualizers want credit, and more work.
Creators want to be able to
keep creating. They need
people paying them to make
new stuff, so they need credit
for the things they’ve already
done.

10. Blog.Visual.ly
Viewers want to see cool stuff.
Blog posts give us a way to
highlight certain works, or
collections of work that we think
people will like to see and
share.

11. Blog.Visual.ly
Visualizers want to learn.
Educated creators make better
content, and that is good for
everyone involved.

12. Blog.Visual.ly
Visualizers want to compete.
Competitions provide a place to
hone skills, show off, and
receive constructive criticism.

13. Blog.Visual.ly
Visualizers want credit.
Spotlight pieces help get a
creator’s name out and get their
work more attention.

14. Blog.Visual.ly
The community need to trust us.
Publishers we work with are
paying us money to do a job.
They need to trust that we do
good work, and that we are
representing their name as best
as we possibly can.
Creators need to trust that we
want them to succeed, and that
we are helping them to get what
they need to keep making.
Viewers need to trust that the
content we show them is
truthful and accurate.

15. Marketplace.Visual.ly
Visualizers want work.
Visualizers want to work on
projects that pay well, with
clients that aren’t overly
demanding.

16. Marketplace.Visual.ly
Publishers want reliability.
Publishers want their work done
quickly by skilled designers,
and they want it to match what
they envision.

17. Marketplace.Visual.ly
Employing the community.
Categorized graphics get
aggregated for each designer
account.

18. Marketplace.Visual.ly
Employing the community.
At least ten designers are
employed full-time through the
marketplace, with many more
approaching that threshold
every month.

19. Lead by example
Communities need leaders.
Doing great design, storytelling,
and data visualization helps to
provide inspiration for other
visualizers.

20. Lead by example
Publishers need proof it works.
Publishers need to know that
showing data and information to
people is a good way to gain
trust and recognition.

21. Lead by example
Publicly recognize good work.
The staff pick badge is a
recognition of extraordinarily
good work. The recognition
makes publishers and
visualizers proud, and helps
spotlight good work for viewers.

22. Internal Connections
Reach out personally.
Being supportive of work that
people create helps them feel
appreciated, and will earn their
loyalty many times over.

23. Internal Connections
Show off community activity.
Showing people that the
community is active and
engaged helps to keep them
active and engaged in the
community.

24. Internal Connections
Strengthen internal connections.
Let community members
connect with each other, and
help them keep those
connections strong.

25. External Connections
Recruit new members.
There will inevitably be a
natural tendency for the
community to stagnate and lose
members over time. External
connections help to pull in new
members and keep the
community vibrant.

26. External Connections
Make it easy to share.
Running our own social media
accounts makes it easy for
other people to re-share the
good examples we’ve selected.

27. External Connections
Promote Designers’ Work
Showing designers’ work to
external communities helps get
eyeballs on it. This helps the
designers by showing off their
skills, and it helps publishers by
getting their work seen.

28. External Connections
Be accessible.
drew@visual.ly
@seeingstructure