Policy Horizons Canada is the strategic foresight arm of the federal Government of Canada.  Policy Horizons conducts forward-looking research to anticipate policy challenges, or plausible changes that may occur in the future for which we are not yet adequately prepared.

Policy Horizons Canada conducts an annual MetaScan report, a large-scale study communicating future trends of concern, for the purposes of informing decision-making by the Civil Service.

Policy Horizons needed to be able to introduce and summarize the findings of the report into an easily digestible overview format to facilitate quick comprehension of complex concepts, as well as to serve as an introduction to the report itself.

A Perceptual Explainer Video was created to summarize the report in close collaboration with the team at Policy Horizons.

At the beginning of the initiative, the findings of the report were discussed, and a collaborative group effort was made to synthesize plausible scenarios reflecting the technological and sociological trends of said report. Contributors of diverse backgrounds were present, including the senior head of foresight, and an expert in artificial intelligence technology.

Perceptual and Policy Horizons started the session with the open generation of ideas, with concepts being collaboratively sketched, allowing members to either explain or directly sketch concepts as they developed.

These concepts were then developed into a script and set of storyboards, with the script then recorded to provide a voiceover for the video.

The final storyboards were then developed into a two-minute animated explainer video using a mix of film and 3D animation.

Policy Horizons found the Perceptual Explainer Video to be highly effective at introducing the MetaScan reports to the Civil Service, so much so that Perceptual was engaged to create a second video the year following.

The videos have served well to summarize and introduce complex policy challenges to both the Civil Service and the wider public through publication on the public-facing website of Policy Horizons Canada.

Collaborative Sketching for Innovation

Strategic Foresight

Scenario Development

Animated Explainer Video

Perceptual Interactive Visualization distills and clarifies complex information environments enabling clear stakeholder decision-making and communication.

Complex new initiatives can be difficult to evaluate and communicate, especially to a non-technical or mixed background stakeholder group.

Perceptual Interactive Visualization goes beyond communication to driving conversation, engaging and enabling stakeholder comprehension and feedback to increase the acceptance and success of an initiative.