UBI Calculator / Interactive web tool
Explore how a basic income proposal could affect you.
We worked with UBI researchers to create an interactive calculator for exploring how different universal basic income proposals could affect an individual and the broader population.
Explore the story â
01 / The challenge
Make policy assumptions something people can explore.
Universal basic income prompts questions about personal finances, policy assumptions and national effects. The projectâs partners wanted a way for people to explore those relationships through an understandable interface.
More about the challenge
The challenge was to turn a complex model into a usable experience while keeping different proposal parameters meaningful to the person comparing them.
- Project
- UBI Calculator
- Our contribution
- Product design & engineering
- People using it
- People exploring UBI policy proposals
- Engagement
- Interactive web tool
02 / A product decision
Building a case for UBI
The calculator was designed to be embeddable on other websites. That lets a host offer the interactive model within a wider policy discussion alongside the ideas and arguments it helps people explore.
03 / Inside the work
Connect the model to the person using it.
We worked with researchers Conrad Shaw and Steven Pressman to identify the variables in the model. Their subject-matter expertise informed the calculation approach; our work shaped and built the interactive tool.
The result supports exploration and conversation. Its calculations depend on the selected proposal and assumptions, keeping the modelâs parameters part of the comparison.
04 / A product decision
One view, many plans
A user can explore an individual economic situation under different popular or hypothetical UBI proposals. The interface also presents broader implications according to each proposalâs parameters, making comparison part of the product.
05 / Our contribution
The policy expertise.
The product craft.
Conrad Shaw brought the policy models and the questions he wanted people to explore. Twenty Ideas contributed design and engineering to make those models interactive, with the assumptions visible in the product.
That collaboration needed a shared understanding of both the calculations and the experience of using them.
âBesides their high level of competence, they had effective and constant communication.â
Under the surface: how this project was built
Interactive model
TypeScript, Vue.js and Node.js connected the calculation model with the web experience.
Visual comparisons
Chart.js supported the charts used to explore the modelâs outputs.
Product structure
User-flow mapping and component prototypes shaped how people entered assumptions and compared proposals.
06 / Product work
Make the assumptions explorable.
An interactive tool connects personal inputs, policy proposals and the parameters behind a comparison.
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