National Geographic
What the World Eats
Capabilities
- Data analysis, research, and storyfinding
- Data visualization design and development
Challenges
- How can we translate highly technical data labels and definitions to a lay audience?
- How can we show 50,000+ data points in an intuitive, educational, and engaging interface?
Outcomes
- The average engagement time was 8:15 — 5x higher than National Geographic’s site-wide average.
Whether influenced by strained foreign relations, growing economies, institutionalized religion, or shifting environmental conditions, the food we consume depends on where we live. What the World Eats, created for National Geographic’s Future of Food series, compares national diets and consumption patterns across a variety of countries over the last 50 years.
The project breaks down the food items that fuel daily diets in each country, and also shares a detailed view of national and per person meat intakes. By toggling between daily diet breakdowns and daily meat consumption, users can compare how countries consume varying quantities and calories of different foodstuffs over time, in addition to exploring the greater structural circumstances that influence the way people eat around the world.
