The The New York Times recently published a story: “Defending Its Rankings, U.S. News Takes Aim at Top Law Schools” (paywalled) about how Law Schools are fed up with the US News & World Report rankings, and how the magazine is fighting back. I was particularly struck by this passage:
Ms. Gerken, the Yale Law School dean, and other participants suggested that the data gathered by the American Bar Association already provided good information for prospective applicants. The data provided on the bar association website, however, does not allow someone to easily compare one law school with another, and it lacks the emotional punch of number rankings like the one used by U.S. News.
Another sad case of good data stuck in bad formats like Excel downloads and antiquated interfaces. Fortunately, it is a problem that is very fixable with Juicebox.
We created an alternative Law School Comparison site using data from American Bar Association and AccessLex Institute. With this type of interactive report, we think about a few key things:
How do we provide interactivity so the user can make the results most relevant to their needs?
How do we give users a workflow through the data to support their exploration?
How can we guide and narrate this journey with good descriptions, labels, and visual indicators?
When Law Schools and American Bar Association are ready to break free of the tyranny of US News & World Report (but still recognize that data transparency is important for decision-making) they know who to call. Check it out 👇