The Challenge

The map had to be right. It was being used to educate policymakers about electoral reform — a wrong classification isn't a cosmetic error, it's misinformation in a political context. Before opening ArcGIS Pro, each of 190+ countries was researched and classified against five to six independent sources. The organizing logic had to be established first: what categories exist, how edge cases get handled, what happens when sources disagree.

Once the classification framework was solid, the data was structured in Excel — new fields created, each country populated, every edge case resolved. Only after that did the work move into GIS: country boundary shapefile sourced from OpenStreetMap, attributes joined, topology checked. Then country by country again to verify completeness and consistency. The dataset was uploaded to ArcGIS Online only after integrity was confirmed.

The dashboard was designed for a specific audience: people who care about democracy, not GIS. That meant custom pop-up imagery designed in Photoshop, clean symbology with a clear legend, and interactive elements that reward curiosity without requiring technical knowledge. The result is publicly accessible and live.

"I don't open ArcGIS until the data is right. For 190 countries, that meant five or six sources each — and not moving forward until every classification held up."

Process

  1. 1
    Research Identified 5–6 authoritative sources per country; resolved conflicts; built classification framework for 8 electoral system types.
  2. 2
    Data Prep Structured all 190+ countries in Excel; created and populated new attribute fields; handled edge cases and disputed classifications.
  3. 3
    GIS Work Joined attributes to world boundary shapefile; verified topology; validated every country; designed symbology and pop-ups.
  4. 4
    Output Published live ArcGIS Online dashboard; custom Photoshop pop-up imagery; publicly accessible.
Principle 01
Structure before software

The methodology — classification framework, source reconciliation, field design — has to be settled before any data touches a GIS tool. Software doesn't fix a bad framework. It just executes it faster.