This experience report is addressed to communicators and data visualization researchers embarking on visualization projects that involve complex layers of data. It explains the creation of a data visualization project focused on the relationship between environmental factors and the COVID-19 pandemic, as researched in the literature, using content analysis and graphical representation of data. The report surrounds the concept of complexity (Cairo, 2012) along six communication elements described by Cavaller (2021). These elements are regrouped into three categories aiming at describing the decision-making processes: data (message/encoder), representation (form/context), and technology (channel/decoder). The report concludes with takeaways drawn from the author's experience of this data visualization project.