Beyond the Mean

This short motion graphic animation was inspired by the Favreau, Everett (1996) paper on the importance of inspecting the tails of a statistical distribution before making generalizations about groups. It was created using Illustrator and AfterEffects.

Goal:
Increase statistical literacy.

Audience:
People curious about basic statistical analysis and critical research comprehension.

Message:
To understand the effects of an intervention, do not only compare the means but also make sure to compare the distribution curves.

Tone:
Friendly, simple, unintimidating.

Strategy:
To keep the explanation simple, we use one static shot of one cartesian graph throughout the animation. We also decided on a white background with a minimal colour pallet in order to keep our information calm and clear.

We relied on both voice-over and captioning to maximize comprehension.

We used a script typeface (Nothing You Could Do) reminiscent of whiteboard teaching to give the piece an overall friendly and approachable tone.