# Impfdashboard

_The official German COVID-19 vaccination dashboard_

Published: 2020-01-15

Live project: https://impfdashboard.de

How can we visualize the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations in Germany in a concise, appealing and accessible way? Our mobile-first solution for the official vaccination dashboard sets a new standard for governmental data communication around the pandemic.

## Key visuals

- Waffle charts of doses by priority group — health workers 45.5%, older people 41.0%, care-home residents 22.5%, at-risk 3.6%
- Regional dashboard view with map and bar chart of fully vaccinated per 100 residents by state, led by Rhineland-Palatinate 3.4%
- Bar chart of vaccination progress by age group — 85.3% of 60+, 73.0% of 18–59 and 41.5% of 12–17 fully vaccinated

## Design approach

![Mobile-first Impfdashboard screens: data-generated status text, daily-dose bar chart, vaccination clock, regional map and milestones]()

Our mobile-first design approach lead us away from the typical "chart patchwork" found on many other dashboards towards a responsive, content and communication oriented approach.

Consequently, we rely not only charts or tables to convey information, but also on text, generated from data.

![Data-generated text: 189K doses given on 29 Oct 2021, 55.5M people (66.7%) fully vaccinated in Germany]()

 Compared to a chart, text generated from data is…
- lower barrier
- screenreader-friendly
- easily shareable by copy-paste
- automatically translatable

It's the perfect complement to charts and more visual elements.

![Map and ranked bar chart of fully vaccinated share by German state, from Bremen 81.1% down to Saxony 58.9%]()

Likewise, combining two simple charts, like the map and a bar chart can eliminate the need for a color legend, and provide better accessibility (and ranking information) combined with the power of the map to reveal spatial patterns and quick orientation.

## Vaccination clock

![Animated Impf-Uhr vaccination clock showing one COVID-19 shot given roughly every 0.6 seconds in Germany]()

We also make sure to present the most important facts in different forms — for instance, the bar chart on top shows how yesterday's vaccination rate compared to the last seven days, while the "vaccination clock" further below provides you an intuitive feeling how fast the pace of vaccination is in Germany, currently.

Same data, different perspectives, different insights.

![Bar chart of vaccination progress by age group: 85.3% of 60+, 73.0% of 18–59 and 41.5% of 12–17 fully vaccinated]()

## Milestones

The road to full vaccination is a long one, so we thought about how we can define intermediate goals. Our milestones section celebrates those achievements, (obviously inspired by badges in video games), and could provide meaningful anchors in a timeline view.

![Milestones timeline of Germany's vaccination campaign, from first vaccine approvals to 5 million doses by 20 February 2021]()

## Generating static assets

Other details that matter: Social media preview images, embeddable views on our partner site [https://zusammengegencorona.de](https://zusammengegencorona.de), and even the favicon, are generated as static images on each deployment, from current data, using puppeteer (https://pptr.dev). 

<!-- 
For instance, this image has the static URL, but is always up to date with the latest data:
![]() -->
<!-- ![]() -->

![Tweet from German Health Ministry sharing an auto-generated Impfdashboard preview image, 69.2% with at least one dose]()

## Reflections

Although we were brought in as #dataviz experts, we opted not to impress with "fancy charts", but first and foremost to get the basics right, in terms of 

- effective communication 
- wide accessibility and 
- practical use of the data

We rolled out a simple site very early on, and continued to refine the dashboard in three subsequent updates — reflecting and reacting to external as well as internal feedback, and the progression of the vaccination campaign. In our view, developing a complex and widely accessed site like this "in the wild" and in an agile manner is key to success.

![Five successive Impfdashboard versions side by side, showing the site's design evolution across four updates]()

## Impact

The site was widely recognized for its novel, user-centered and thoughtful design and on-point execution. Bloomberg featured it in the article ["The rise of the pandemic dashboard"](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-09-25/why-every-government-needs-a-covid-dashboard).

## Credits

With [Studio NAND](https://nand.io) and [Cosmonauts & Kings](https://cosmonautsandkings.com/).

Published by the [Bundesgesundheitsministerium (German Ministry of Health)](https://www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de) 

Data supplied by [Robert Koch Institut](https://www.rki.de)

---
[View on truth-and-beauty.net](https://truth-and-beauty.net/projects/impfdashboard)