The Atlas of Global Development
Measuring progress & communicating global trends

16.1%
Share of population living on less than 3 dollars per day in Côte d'Ivoire, 2025













Embedded progress viz







Bringing the Atlas to a wider audience





Scrolly example
Eye candy: particles, animations, smooth transitions
Mobile friendly, robot friendly, referenced


Collaborating on the Atlas



Custom cms, preview, art direction, reusable components
Handling data

.xlsx, .xls
.csv
.json, APIs
.RData
.dta, .do
html table
.shp, .dbf
.tif
...
Data formats
Developing a story

New indicator
New data, new data update
New report
Emerging trend
Choosing a topic
Bullet points
or better: slide with sketch/draft visualizations
Make an outline
and iterate
Review story outline
Publish on preview site
Visualization review
It is a process: show example
Develop visualizations
Takeaways

Expensive, but there is a ROI
Body text
Make visualizations first class
Body text
Meet in the middle with experts
Body text
Measuring progress? Check our methodology
Body text
Takeaways
Invest in your tech stack
Make it reproducible, mainstream it
Takeaways
BEHIND THE SCENES
Visualization process












BEHIND THE SCENES
How I use AI

TL;DR: very cautiously
Chatgpt
Create simple utility functions: data conversion, ...
Explain code snippets written by others
Explain how to use unfamiliar libraries and functions
Detect syntax issues
Gives Python and Svelte 4 output by default

Github Copilot
When AI needs to see my code
Always in "Ask" mode, never in "Agent"
Very easy to leak secrets
Advice on implementation strategies
Plan new complex features
mAI
When I need to navigate the World Bank bureaucracy

TL;DR:
For boring stuff
To learn new stuff
To plan and decide on big stuff

The Atlas of Global Development: How to measure progress and communicate global trends
By maartenzam
The Atlas of Global Development: How to measure progress and communicate global trends
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