Description:

L'Atelier BNP Paribas is an insights company based in Paris, France, specialising in technologies that may impact societies and economies in the near future.

In 2020, L'Atelier commissioned research into what they called "the virtual economy" — technologies that enable, facilitate and amplify social experiences and economic transactions in a virtual setting. From augmented eyewear, through connected infrastructure, to digital identity, the virtual economy is on the cusp of a massive, rapid and pervasive expansion into our day-to-day existence.

The research itself is powered by a proprietary data intelligence engine that tracks the most significant early-stage technologies globally, from idea to market.

With The Virtual Economy Technology Radar, the design team were confronted with the challenge of visualising this research and making its insights clear and accessible. A specific data-visualisation challenge was the requirement to show how 54 key emerging technologies are interconnected across three broad categories: access, immersion and transaction. The visualisation needed to encompass a complete view of the technology ecosystem. It also needed to provide a navigation experience that let users focus on a subset of categories, or zoom in to each of the 54 technologies to engage with data-visualisation and further explanation and insights.

The design solution is a custom interactive chord diagram, along with a content structure and navigation to enable different zoom levels in one experience. The visualisation lets users sort and filter technologies by category, or focus on individual technologies to explore their specific interconnections. A dot scoring system was developed to provide a visual indication of the maturity level of each technology.

Altogether, The Virtual Economy Technology Radar is a complete assessment of the technology ecosystem delivered in a single, interactive visualisation.