OECD
Technology is changing the future of our jobs.
OECD challenged us to create a tool which helps people across the world understand how technology changes our jobs and what they can do to be prepared.
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THE PROJECT

Is your job at risk of automation?

Robotics and AI are rapidly changing people’s jobs. OECD research suggests that one in two jobs will be affected by automation. They wanted to create a web application to enable people across the world to investigate the likelihood of automation for their own and similar jobs.

Everyone here is extremely impressed by how you have responded to our brief. There are a lot of other people from other teams and directorates asking for your details.

The futureofjobs website has been going really well and use has absolutely exceeded our expectations. By now over 66,000 visitors have used the website and more than 29,000 people have completed the survey.

Anja Meierkord
Labour Market Economist – Skills and Employability Division
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A NEW NARRATIVE

Jobs have always changed

Existing automation calculators lacked a nuanced explanation of the topic. Many media outlets adopted a click-bait “the robots are coming for our jobs” approach. We helped the OECD aim higher, developing a story that could educate without scare-mongering and provide pathways to further information without patronising the broad target audience. Our message needed to be universal and clear. Our narrative used historic equivalent to contextualise the challenges that face today’s workforce.

AN INTRIGUING IDENTITY

Job are multifaceted

We needed to convey the idea that a job is not one single thing. Most are made up of smaller tasks requiring different skills. We also wanted to convey the idea that jobs have always changed. The identity we developed embodied both these things. One shape made by many smaller elements animated in constant, random flux. Using the triangle or Delta symbol representative of change or difference between two things was an additional easter egg for those who knew their Greek or Mathematics.

User Experience

A narrative backed up by the UX

To maximise completion rate we strategically ordered the questionnaire and broke the questions down into manageable sections. We gave users feedback on their progress and made the process feel human and engaging. The visualisation reinforced the notion of jobs being made up of multiple tasks with each question building part of the picture of their job.

THE PRODUCT

Data capture platform

The product takes users through a unique questionnaire designed by the OECD, which we then optimised for completion rates and accessibility. It builds a complex profile of a person's job which is then evaluated against the OECD's risk of automation model.

PERSONALISED DASHBOARD

What is my risk?

Once completed, the user is presented with a layered report relating to their current role, their job, their sector, and their country. It seeks to educate respondents about the nature of jobs and automation, making them more aware of the factors that affected their results.

EXPLORE DATA

How do I compare?

One of the goals was to engage users and help spread dissemination of the platform as widely as possible. We created additional features, available to users once they had completed the survey, to allow them to explore or compare other similar occupations by skills or knowledge and by country, industry or role.

WHAT NEXT?

Directing people to advice

The OECD wanted not only to educate their users, but also to empower them by providing pathways to additional information and sources of re-training materials based on the information they had entered into the questionnaire.
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EXPLAINING AUTOMATION

Engaging illustrations

We created an illustrated narrative about the nature of AI and robotics within the workplace to help provide the audience with a more nuanced understanding of the likely changes and impacts that these new technologies will have in years to come.

EXPLAINING AUTOMATION

An introduction

Advancing technology makes it possible to automate more and more tasks as time goes by. However, humans are still better than computers at performing numerous tasks today. Here is a guide to tasks that are more difficult to automate, according to experts. See if you can spot the ones you do most in your job.

EXPLAINING AUTOMATION

Creative intelligence

Artificial intelligence to date lacks the creative intelligence of human beings. Creative intelligence means using one's imagination and coming up with new and meaningful ideas, approaches and products. If your job requires being creative, it is less likely to change.

EXPLAINING AUTOMATION

Social intelligence

Robots currently fail to grasp the subtleties of human social interaction. Humans analyse and navigate each other's emotions in real-time. If your job involves interacting with others for the purpose of negotiating, persuading, assisting or caring for someone, your job is less likely to change.

EXPLAINING AUTOMATION

Manipulation tasks

Robots find it difficult to do certain handling and manipulation tasks, such as working with irregular objects, planning the best course of action to move objects or identifying mistakes when assembling items. Their manipulators are less responsive to feedback than human hands or arms, which limit their use.

EXPLAINING AUTOMATION

Perception tasks

Humans are much better than robots at working in unstructured work environments, for example a home or school where there are many different and irregular objects and space can be cluttered. Robots need structure to navigate and work better in environments such as supermarkets, factories or warehouses.
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DATA MANAGEMENT

A peek behind the scenes

We built a bespoke Content Managment System (CMS) to enable OECD teams to dynamically update key elements of the platform.

Home Provided analytic dashboards in sections that delivered teams actionable insight into user behaviour.

Survey Enabled adjustments to survey questions and result calculations that dictated the user report screens

Content Dynamic page content builders for the OECD to tweak titles and language across the site.

Responses A simple interface for reviewing and downloading complete and partially complete survey data.

Data set Allowed OECD to upload latest data sets in excel formats, ensuring users were given accurate comparative data.

Admin Allowing OECD to manage colleagues’ access to the platform.

WHAT THE CLIENT SAID

It’s looking fantastic. I was completely surprised by how excited I was to see this after only having mentally visualised it for so long. Everyone here is extremely impressed by how you have responded to our brief. There are a lot of other people from other teams and directorates asking for your details.

The futureofjobs website has been going really well and use has absolutely exceeded our expectations. By now over 66,000 visitors have used the website and more than 29,000 people have completed the survey.

The main German broadband provider (t-mobile), linked to the website on their browser landing page and many other German media outlets covered the website around the same time. From what I can see, it went viral in Germany after a relatively well known technology blogger tweeted about it. As you have seen on linkedin, we have also been promoting the website in the context of meetings and conferences in person and on social media, including at Vivatech, a giant innovation and start-up fair in Paris, the OECD Forum in Paris and the OECD going digital event.

Thanks for all your work

Anja Meierkord
Labour Market Economist – Skills and Employability Division

Read Anja’s full testimonial

RESULTS

A first for the OECD

The OECD was delighted by the response to the site, and the support we gave them in creating marketing tools to disseminate the platform. The site continues to receive unprecedented traffic from visitors in every continent in the world collecting anonymous data and enabling the OECD to further their research methodology. We have high hopes to extend the site to more communities by enabling multi-languages and working further on the organic SEO of the site.

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