Internship • 5 min read

FAO header
Financial Accountability Office of Ontario
FAO Website
Term
January 2022 - April 2022
Title
Digital Graphics Co-op Student
Responsibilities
  • Design graphic materials for print, web, video, social media and infographics, presentations and webinars.
  • Maintain the FAO website including web design with HTML & CSS, using a CMS interface to add and revise content.
  • Develop Word templates/styles and layout design for financial publications, format content for both print and web.
OVERVIEW
For the Winter 2022 term, I was given the great opportunity to work as a Digital Graphics Co-op Student as part of the FAO's communications team. As my first co-op term, I was able to learn a lot in the short time I was there and had a great experience of being able to design a variety of products for various reports.

What is the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario (FAO)?

"...the FAO provides independent analysis on the state of the Province's finances, trends in the provincial economy and related matters important to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario."
The Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, or the FAO, is a provincial organization that produces a variety of reports focused on independent analysis of Ontario's finances and trends in the provincial economy. This includes topics such as health care, taxes, budgets, education and child care, etc.
WHAT I DID

My Role

I worked as a Digital Graphics Co-op Student as part of the communications team. I mainly worked closely with the lead graphic designer and I was assigned various digital communications tasks and products to complete for publication. Typically if a report had to be released, each of these tasks had to be done within a week's timeline as reports were released every week.
Design
Utilizing Adobe CC (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro), I designed infographics and edited videos based on reports written by the Financial and Economics teams, to be published on social media. Since it is a government organization, posts had to have an English and French version. It was important to keep in mind the spacing when text content is translated as I noticed that French versions tend to be a bit longer and took up more space. I was also able to design a some new templates that would be used for future posts! Below are some of the designs I produced for the FAO's social media, including an animation, and EN and FR versions of a design.
Social media graphics were to be made in different layouts for Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Quote templates that I worked on in English...
...that were formatted to their French versions.
One of the videos I edited!
Website
I assisted in maintaining the FAO website using HTML, CSS, and a CMS interface. This involved finding ways to optimize website speed, converting Word reports to HTML for the site, and taking the lead on preparing and scheduling communication products for public release.
Ensuring Accessibility
All FAO digital communications products have to meet with current government standards. Things such as, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) requirements and guidelines, French Language Services Act (FLSA), and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) have to be met in order for products to be approved and released. When designing products, colour choice, font sizes and readability, and creating graphical descriptions for tables & graphs had to be considered to ensure that information is accessible to ALL Ontario citizens.

Impact

Distribution Illustrator
During this internship, I was given the opportunity to take on a project and lead the design and development of an interactive graph. The main purpose of the graph was to be responsive to user selection and show data based on the report it was to be released with.
Sneak peek of the Graph
Read more about the project!
Increase Interactions
With the variety of communication products I was able to work on, including the Distribution Illustrator, I was able to assist in increasing web and social media interactions (video/post views, link clicks, etc) by 4%!

Challenges

Working Remote
For my first co-op term, I was a bit sad that it was remote. I found that with working remote, it was harder to build connections with my co-workers compared to working in-person where conversations are easy to start. I mainly connected with the communications team as we had weekly check-ins.
I also had to learn how to self-manage myself, to make sure that tasks get done by the deadline. This meant determining the priority of all the tasks I had to get done and keeping myself organized so that I wouldn't get overwhelmed or fall behind.
WHAT I LEARNED

The BTS of Web Design

During this co-op term, I was able to get a look into how web design works from a professional standpoint. There is a lot that goes into it, like finding ways to keep the user engaged when they are scrolling through a page or ensuring that all images have alt text for accessibility purposes.

Importance of Branding Consistency

As a government organization, it was important to stick to specific brand guidelines so that they don't appear to have any political biases through things like colour. Brand consistency is all about being recognizable, establishing trust, and communicating the organization's overall message and goals.

Importance of Creating Inclusive Designs

Working at the FAO gave me the opportunity to dive into accessible designing and the specific guidelines that need to be followed to ensure that everyone can access it. For users to have the best experience, it's important to consider the different contexts that they may be accessing a product as it will be different for every user, especially with all the different devices and browsers that exist.
I'm really grateful for this experience and to the communications team, for giving me the opportunity to work alongside them to have an impact in creating meaningful work for Ontario citizens. Although being remote might not have been the ideal environment for my first co-op and I did have my struggles, I was able to learn a lot and develop my skills as a designer.

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