The Decisions Survey

A Festoon Studios investigative graphic & survey

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We all have to make big decisions in our work lives. 
What drives yours?

We developed a series of infographics exploring and comparing the influences, implications and reasoning behind the decisions we make in our daily work lives. To gather the information we developed an online survey to collect information on decisions from a number of professionals. 

Below are a series of graphics produced from the results of the surveys

 
 

Decisions in a doctor’s day

Taking the information from one interviewed doctor who was a participant in the survey, we expanded on the data he provided to map out the decisions they made throughout the day. We spoke to them in further detail about their day, and decided to split the top section of the infographic to be about influences on the decisions, the central row . (in white) to represent the decisions themselves, and the lower section to be about the consequences and effects of those decisions. The infographic then showed the interconnections between the influences, consequences and decisions themselves. It also maps out decisions which we wouldn’t necessarily associate with a day in the life of a doctor.

Pulling out what the doctor had indicated was their hardest decision of the day using bolder graphic treatment, the reader understands the priority of the content.

Graphic of paths from receiving an email to the actions of taking a survey or not, with emotional outcomes

We visualised how the infographic may look in the context of an exhibition in a large space.

Scrolling email infographic

This graphic explores trends from the responses of the survey participants. This explores responses to the question around the hardest decision the participants had ever made.

Vertical flowchart showing personal decision-making, from job choices to life changes

After looking at used word count tools, we extracting themes from the responses to help categorise the information we visualised. The email was sent out to participants of the survey.

 
 

The challenge

We approached this project from scratch after making the decision to research how the day to day decisions vary from profession to profession. This involved formulating a survey to collect information about as many different professions as possible to establish an interesting data set. We would use the data to explore individual cases and trends across the survey samples

 
 

The survey

Below are the questions we asked which produced the data for our visualisations.

  1. What is your first name?

  2. What is your job title?

  3. Briefly describe what your job involves ( as if you've just been introduced to a stranger in a pub )

  4. Who has most influenced your career choice  ?

  5. Which one of these factors has most influence on your life decisions?

  6. What percentage of your decisions have to be approved by other people?

  7. Give 3 examples of people who are affected directly by your decisions and how?

  8. How many people do you manage?

  9. What’s the toughest decision you’ve made in your career & why?

  10. How long would the implications be felt? A lifetime / A week or below / A month or below / 3 years or below

  11. What’s the best decision you’ve made in your career?

  12. Indicate which of these statements is relevant to you: I make Safety based decisions / I make Communication based decisions / I make Instinct based decisions / I make Creativity based decisions / I make Strategic based decisions / I make Analytical based decisions

  13. List some typical professional decisions you have to make leaving work

  14. Your professional decisions are based on solid fact. 0 = Not at all    10= Absolutely, all of them

  15. Your professional decisions are based on your emotional reaction. 0 = Not at all    10= Absolutely, all of them

  16. Your professional decisions are based on impulse. 0 = Not at all    10= Absolutely, all of them

  17. Your professional decisions are made to improve the professional situation of others. 0 = Not at all 10= Absolutely, all of them

  18. Your professional decisions are made to improve your own professional situation. 0 = Not at all    10= Absolutely, all of them

  19. Give an example of a Judgemental decision you have made: i.e. familiarity of how to respond in certain situations

  20. Give an example of a decision you have made based on a learned skill : i.e. a decision you can only make with  professional training or self taught skill

  21. Give an example of a reaction / responsive based decision you have made.