The Society of News Design invited journalists, educators and professionals to New York City from May 17-21 to judge the best digital design work of 2022. This juried Creative Competition recognizes journalistic excellence in storytelling, graphics, social media and product design. The goal of the contest is to identify the best of journalism that pushes the boundaries of design and technology. Submissions help define the state of the art for the industry.
As in years past, panels consisted of six teams of three judges: two news, two graphics, features and product. Each judge was charged with evaluating entries assigned based on individual merit. Two conflict judges were available to step in to help evaluate pieces when a judge has a conflict of interest.
Judges were asked for their observations from the competition:
What has been new and exciting about this year’s entries?
“More entries than I would have thought used sound in a meaningful manner. It’s a tricky thing to get right. I was also happy to see how high the bar is in terms of visual craftsmanship and visual storytelling.”
Emil Thorbjornsson, The Daily Newspaper Information
“The baseline quality of work is so incredibly high. We’ve seen a lot of creativity that just keeps growing and growing to serve stories better. It’s elevating the tapestry of storytelling.”
Alvin Chang, The New School
“There’s been a melding of digital tools and investigative work. It’s not technically fascinating, but smart, visual journalism. It’s a return to values and a simple formula.”
Alex Tatusian, Los Angeles Times
What is something you’ve noticed while judging pieces?
“I was surprised by the very high quality of work from international newsrooms. The last year American newsrooms have pulled back from crazy, interactive stuff, but I’m blown away by some of the innovation.”
Alex Tatusian, Los Angeles Times
“It’s been great to see how different organizations approach some of the same topics. This indicates to me that organizations are understanding their audiences and their own unique voices.”
“A larger breadth of organizations did some amazing storytelling. There have been a lot of collaborations across journalists of different mediums (a mix of illustrators, videos, animations, graphics). There were some really niche, but important topics.”
Joanne Kao, Financial Times
“The use of 3D-rendered video and progressing through it, frame-by-frame, via scroll is increasingly ubiquitous. This approach was relatively new only a few years ago, and we now see many newsrooms using this format to tell a story. I think more tutorials from larger newsrooms and journalists on how to encode the video properly to achieve this affect will really help smaller newsrooms replicate this approach.
Matt Daniels, The Pudding
What are some trends that you feel like you’re seeing too much of?
“I never want to see scollytelling again. It’s something we can move away from.”
Alvin Chang, The New School
“Scrollytelling as the default mode of keeping the reader focused on one element at a time…. beautiful graphics trapped in ungainly article frameworks, plastered with ugly banners or interrupted with jarring ads… auto-playing or scroll-triggered videos that strip the reader of any control… a wall of charts without unifying art design or narrative connective tissue. Breaking basic browser functionality: putting text into images, scrolljacking, lack of alt-text or semantic elements.
Joel Eastwood, The Markup
“Scrollytelling where it doesn’t add sufficient value to the experience. It can be exhausting to get through some of these long scrolls and keep readers engaged. There were so many scrollytelling stories overlaid on satellite maps, both in the Russia/Ukraine category and in the environmental category, which was a natural inclination, but became repetitive.”
Erin Aulov, Politico
“Forced scrollytelling that pushes the reader into one thing vs. allowing them to explore and take the time with the chart on their own. Long projects without a progress bar so that readers understand how much time they have to commit or are willing to commit. Data viz that are maps that would be better if they were not maps (instead a chart, etc). Sports viz that are locked into the template of freeze-frame photo viz without additional ambition.
Lauren Tierney, The Washington Post
“Long scrollytelling without visual cues showing readers where they are, how much scroll left with no escape from the scroll. Scrollytelling can be a powerful tool for dissecting information but it shouldn’t be the default for visuals.”
Jeremy C.F. Lin, Bloomberg
What is something you think people should know?
“I don’t think we’ve seen many new technical achievements, but it’s not what we’re looking for. We do have some innovation. I’ve been most impressed with stories that tackle complex issues and explain a culture or a community like the gray areas with gender and make it approachable. Being able to be smart and elegant in a digital package is a beautiful thing.”
Agnes Chang, New York Times
“Visual journalism as a field feels like it has established a defined set of aesthetic and technical norms, and most submissions executed these with polish and precision. But as a result of these norms, most pieces felt ‘safe’ — there were very few truly novel chart forms or design patterns that strayed from the proven path.
Joel Eastwood, The Markup
“It’s nice to see focused energy. There are times when people are trying to jam everything in a story. I’m craving more voice, something unsettling and challenging editorial norms. Sometimes it’s good to make people uncomfortable.”
“There were a lot of things, collaborative things, nobody asked for. Sometimes it felt like somebody’s pet project, the stuff that is not particularly newsy, but has a lot of energy. It’s important for people to follow their own voice. Some of the really interesting stuff, you can tell the stories were pitched.”
Alex Tatusian, Los Angeles Times
“There were lots of very long scrollytelling stories that became a bit tedious to get through. It’s a good reminder to really consider that part of the user experience and keep our stories tight.”
Erin Aulov, Politico
“Attention to detail has become lost for the sake of doing something fancy. You lose the fact that scrollytelling takes four steps for the reader. Sometimes there is a general overuse of tools.”
“The stories that excited me the most are when things are integrated into the story, like when smaller newsrooms experimented with a 3D models. It shows they’re focused on engaging the reader and not being too fancy.”
Elena Mejia, Freelancer
“The thing I’m coming away with is how important it is to ruthlessly edit ourselves. It could be more bells and whistles or storytelling. Nothing feels tedious or too long when you get it right. It’s the best.”
Kaeti Hinck, CNN
“Design is not just visual, it’s a mode of thinking. Everything we do is design. When we don’t see everything like that, we fall into traps.”
Alvin Chang, The New School
What are some things you’d like to see more of?
“Mastery of tools so we can move past piling them on. When I’m going to build, ask which tools I’m going to use from my toolkit. I see it when it’s good, I really see it when it’s bad.”
Alvin Chang, The New School
“Truly meaningful interactive design that allows you to experience or engage with the subject matter in a way that would be impossible otherwise – not just scrollytelling for the sake of having an alternate story format.”
Erin Aulov, Politico
“More thought of accessibility. I saw a fantastic piece from The Marshall Project that had illustrations with wonderful alt text that gave me all the warm fuzzies.”
Joanne Kao, Financial Times
“I get excited when I see photos and illustrations and how they have been integrated into how [a package] is constructed. We’re seeing more of it now. It’s about seeing the whole vision. It’s really nice to see and is hard to do.”
Agnes Chang, New York Times
“I like pieces that don’t try to do everything but stick to a few good ideas and don’t outstay their welcome. This also means I prefer small portfolios with a few excellent pieces rather than many pieces of variable quality.”
Emil Thorbjörnsson, The Daily Newspaper Information
“When those [breaking news] events happen, don’t make the knee-jerk thing. Everyone has done the Ukraine map, the troop movement; there was a lot of coverage with health care and abortion, but did anyone tackle it from angles that were unpredictable? Instead, people should ask if it moves the story forward? Don’t do the obvious project.”
Kaeti Hinck, CNN
“More pieces that provide what the reader needs to know up top, and then breaks things down (for if the reader wants to continue vs being forced to continue)… Stronger graphics that provide the reader with information without having to scroll through six-plus scrollytelling slides to walk the reader through a really complicated data viz. It just makes the data viz better to help the reader understand more (the ultimate goal)… more ambitious mapping projects that aren’t just visually flashy but also connect the reader to the environment/geography of the story through tone, texture and detail.”
Lauren Tierney, The Washington Post
What really makes an entry stand out and go from an award of excellence to bronze medal? Bronze to silver? Silver to gold?
From bronze to silver: “It’s hard to verbalize, but it’s something that moves beyond the well-executed into something that stops you in your tracks.
From Silver to Gold: “Flawless execution and some type of component that we haven’t seen anywhere else.”
Erin Aulov, Politico
“I think there is a pretty hard line here, where the AoE can be given more liberally as a nod to a great concept, idea or well-made part of a whole, while bronze requires that the whole piece is coherent and of the highest craftsmanship. Silver has to push the medium to new heights and gold is that, plus the extra touch I didn’t expect or just makes it stand out from everything else.”
Emil Thorbjörnsson, The Daily Newspaper Information
“I think the graphics we elevated to a medal demonstrated something new and different, took big swings in format or topic, or showed a spark of excitement from the creator. Any graphic that could surprise or delight caught my attention. After the millionth slick scrollytelling chart package, a story with an unexpected illustration, quirky design choice or narrative twist hooked me and kept me engaged.”
Joel Eastwood, The Markup
“From AOE to bronze the piece needs to stand out in both execution of visuals and the abilities of the size of that team. From bronze to silver the piece needs to meet the above standards and be without noticeable flaws and be difficult to think of a better way to communicate that information visually. From silver to gold, it needs to include all of the above and be something never seen before, or seen before but with improved functionality and visuals that move graphics journalism to the next level.”
Lauren Tierney, The Washington Post
Do you consider the size and resources of a newsroom while judging entries?
“It’s a big factor for me. I try to look at how large by byline. I want to encourage smaller newsrooms that they are still able to do this type of work.”
Agnes Chang, New York Times
“What was amazing to see is the ambition and design coming from smaller newsrooms that many times challenged what some of the bigger newsrooms are publishing. I noticed more ‘joyful’ design in many of the pieces, a departure from some design choices that have been needed due to communicating the news of the last few years”
Lauren Tierney, The Washington Post
“I noticed a lot of ambitious, polished work coming out of smaller and non-us newsrooms as well as creative visual storytelling that’s very different from what we are normally used to seeing in the mainstream media. It’s very exciting.
Jeremy C.F. Lin, Bloomberg
How important is collaboration on digital projects?
“There’s a negotiation that needs to happen between reporters, editors, photographers). It all has to work together for things to be at an elevated form. We definitely have to rely on our colleagues to stay on top of what is going on elsewhere. You can’t do it yourself.”
Chris DeLisle, ESPN
Have you noticed anything we might see more of in the next year?
“I’m excited to see more work with type. I don’t think we’ve explored what I can do.”
Alex Tatusian, Los Angeles Times
Is there anything that you look forward to taking back and putting it into your own work?
“Small, elegant, beautiful animation; story fragments of text. They’re both delightful. It’s hard to do because it feels optional, but it does a lot to set the mood.”
Agnes Chang, New York Times
What advice would you give to people who submit work to the competition?
“Build in time at the end of deadlines to take a step back from the project and see the design as a whole. Find ways to add simple creative elements that bring life to the page.”
Lauren Tierney, The Washington Post
“There is a lot we can learn from other visual mediums: plays, video games, etc. The thing is, things are shifting so fast and attention spans are what they are. We need to be thinking of the experience.”
Kaeti Hinck, CNN
“Hone your story to a needle-sharp point. Your piece should have a single strong thesis. Make a promise to the reader and then deliver with a singular takeaway. Prune anything that distracts or obfuscates. Depth and complexity is crucial, but every element — every paragraph, chart, illustration, etc. — should ultimately buttress your thesis. The strongest works left an indelible impression because they had a clear objective and executed flawlessly.”
“Respect the reader’s time and attention. Use progress bars and nav elements to tell me how much time you’re going to take up. Give the reader the ability to pause, rewind, search, zoom, copy and interact with the copy and graphics in a number of ways… Don’t demand interaction from the reader, but provide options to add detail or depth through tooltips, toggles and hover behavior… Use subtle animation to draw attention and reward interaction… Accessibility: There’s no excuse in 2023 for text that isn’t high enough contrast, color schemes that aren’t color-blind friendly, images without alt text, audio without captions.”
Joel Eastwood, The Markup
“My favorite projects are the zaniest – when people tried things that were fun and weird. Those are the stories that stay with you. Those are the stories you share.”
Kaeti Hinck, CNN
“A lot of pieces used techniques that have been in use for the last few years, but what set some apart was the reporting topic/angle that took something from ‘this happened’ to ‘how this happened and why’, and the graphics informed the reader from there.”
Lauren Tierney, The Washington Post
“I see two things: It used to be the visuals and text were two voices, now we’re seeing a cohesive voice – elements that are placed well at the right moment. And we’re starting to see more artistry soul. For a while we lost it, but it’s part of the voice in the visual world. It’s scary to put yourself out there, but I like those swings.”
Alvin Chang, The New School
Compiled by Steve Zimmerman, Star Tribune