Design for America Winners Announced

In March, Sunlight Labs announced Design for America — a 10-week design and data visualization contest aiming to connect the creative community with the increasing amounts of public data produced by the burgeoning open data movement, making government data more accessible and digestible for the general public. The contest focused on three main categories — data visualization, process transparency and redesigning government — each divided into a few subcategories.

Today, Sunlight Labs announced the winners.

Submissions ranged from an impressive redesign of the IRS to a brilliant infographic showing how a bill becomes a law, to a scrollable guide to the Senate, to an inspired UI redesign of the Social Security Administration.

Some winners of note: County Sin Rankings, winner of the Health Data Challenge, helps citizens quickly and easily understand the health of their communities by spotlighting the seven most significant factors in civic quality of life.

Cool Kids at the White House, a beautifully animated typographic visualization by Nick Jonas, parses White House visitor logs, showing the names of the most visited White House members. A new vision for the US passport application took home the prize for best redesign of a government form. Tied for the win of the data about US spending category were an interactive visualization of federal spending by contracting agency and Is Washington Bankrupting America, an infographically animated video factually contextualizing voters’ concerns about government spending.

See the full list of winners on Sunlight Labs and take a breath of hope for the future of how the public relates to government data.

Maria Popova is the editor of Brain Pickings, a curated inventory of miscellaneous interestingness. She writes for Wired UK, GOOD Magazine and Huffington Post, and spends a shameful amount of time on Twitter.