Everyday Peace Indicators: project at the CCDP

The Swiss National Science Foundation awarded the CCDP a new grant to share the 17,000 indicators collected by the Everyday Peace Indicators (EPI) team. In this short blog series, I want to share a behind-the-scenes look at this project.

Data points or stories? 

The first approach treated the indicators as dots. A sea of tiny points spread across the screen captured the scale and interconnectedness of the data in a striking, immediately engaging way. There’s clarity and professional polish to this design, making it appealing for casual users or external stakeholders. Yet one team member raised an important concern: while patterns are clear, the personal, narrative power of each indicator risks being flattened. For us, it’s precisely that narrative power – the glimpses into lived experience – that gives the indicators their meaning. Dots can show patterns, but can they tell stories?

The second approach drew on the metaphor of books. Each indicator became a little story, a tangible unit of human experience. This visualization centers the narrative, inviting reflection, dialogue, and policy- or research-driven exploration. It is intimate, immersive, and human. Yet with nearly 17,000 indicators, it quickly becomes unwieldy. Clustering them meaningfully is tricky, and users might scroll through a few entries without grasping the full breadth. The metaphor captures the soul, but struggles to convey the scope.

Visualizing Everyday Peace

These experiments lead us to imagine a hybrid option: start with the immersive, visually rich feel of the dots, then allow users to zoom into the narrative depth of the books. The indicators could unfold gradually, offering both a macro view and the human story behind each point. A philosophical question lingers: how rigorously can – or should – we call these indicators “data”? Academics often challenge the term, noting that lived experiences do not fit neatly into conventional frameworks. Yet whether “data” or “stories,” their value remains. Our task is to honor both scale and humanity, to make visible the voices too often hidden without losing their depth.

As we continue exploring visualizations, this tension guides us

" . . . how can we create something beautiful and informative, rigorous and reflective, professional and personal? Perhaps the answer lies not in choosing between dots or books, but in weaving them together, letting them speak to each other, and letting users move seamlessly from one mode to the other – like wandering through a universe of stories, each waiting to be discovered."

What’s next?

In the next post, I’ll reflect on early lessons learned from the indicators.

Learn More

• Learn more about this ongoing project here
• Learn more about EPI here: https://everydaypeaceindicators.org

About the series 

This blog series itself is a collaborative effort, shaped by CCDP Head of Research Eliza Urwin, Doctoral Researcher Apolline Foedit, and envisioned through the communications lens of CCDP specialist Jennifer Thornquest.