2025 marks the 10th anniversary of our radar, the perfect moment to celebrate and share a brief history of the tool’s trajectory: from a static and rigid infographic to the dynamic tool you see today (and teasing what is to come in the near future).
We have delivered more than 100 radars since its first iteration, learning and adapting our tool to our partners' most specific needs, applications and challenges. (A big thank you to all our collaborators and clients over this journey!)
Envisioning's radar lies at the intersection of data visualization and data structure navigation. Its core purpose is to provide an elegant and versatile tool for representing data, as initially conceived by Michell Zappa and Thomaz Rezende.
The circle/sphere is, after all, nature's best way to capture information: "encyclopedia", derived from the Greek, means "connected by circles", "general learning" or even, a "circle of knowledge."
V1.0 - Static Infographic
The first versions of the radar were used to visualize emerging technologies and signals of change. Each of our first deliveries was created from scratch, like an infographic. Any adjustments and additions would need to be made directly on the design, which quickly proved to be inefficient. A D3 integration came as an intermediary and necessary next step, which allowed for more flexibility and efficiency. Over the following years, even though the visual of the radar had been quite consistent, the underlying structure and the UX underwent several changes, for better navigation and improved content/research management.
TDB: One Database, Many Radars
Our proprietary Technology Database was a big part of this change. Continuously updated by our researchers using a rigorous methodology, TDB contained thousands of emerging technologies. For years, all the radars would source that same repository, which, over time, showed rigidity. How to provide different descriptions for each technology, depending on the client’s industry and challenges?
Fast forward to V5.0, when Fabio Andrade joined the team. He helped to consolidate and simplify the radar’s code: the mobile version improved tenfold and a more accessible radar came to life with a screen reader. Slowly, we had to say goodbye to the TDB. Enter V6.0.
V6.0 - Dynamic and Mutable Radar
The current version of the radar allows for live information visualization and navigation, with external data integration. By integrating DatoCMS, we can link different databases, offering white label capabilities and personalization. This gives our partners more control over what and when to publish data to their radars after the setup. This has shown useful applications in different contexts, from internal use to large interactive displays for live events.
Now, we even have an AI assistant embedded in the radar, so the user can ask more specific questions, and we are testing our Signals integration, which aggregates several LLMs to deliver AI-powered scans within minutes, inside our interactive radar interface.
V7.0 - The Future of the Radar
The next version of the radar is now under development, and we are working hard to bring even more flexibility to our tool. Beyond the current AI capabilities, we are focusing on technical components that will allow for seamless integration of vast data sets and expanding visualization possibilities. Imagine being able to navigate multiple navigations of the same dataset seamlessly?
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