From the trip to Civil and Human Rights museum, we’ve learned that 1) people don’t spend more than average 1 min to play with kiosk thus concise and essential information is crucial to maintaining engagement. 2) big color contrast attract people’s attention.
From these learnings, AQI Research team conducted three design workshops testing on different data visualization model. We compared blob chart, line chart, 3D chart, etc. We decided to iterate more on previous daily rose chart we’ve made, but for monthly chart, we decided to redesign the concept by connecting the daily rose chart into monthly chart.
1. Ver 2.0 AQI Daily chart Rosa Chart
Compared to the previous rose chart, we removed the line for 250 to reduce visual clutter. Additionally, we enhanced emphasis on the primary pollutant by using a bold outline for the corresponding section. Another significant change was clearly labeling each section with its respective chemical. We are still working on making this daily chart more aesthetically appealing and intuitively informative, as opposed to the dense appearance it currently has with the thick sticks.
2. Ver 2.0 AQI Monthly Rosa Chart
This is the monthly chart inspired by the Better Life Index chart. We integrated the daily chart within the monthly chart so that the audience can observe not only the trend of the AQI but specifically the trend of the primary pollutant for the month. We also placed illustrations in the background to help viewers understand that this data represents the AQI of the city in Atlanta. Additionally, we color-coded the y-values by level so that the audience can easily estimate the numerical value of the AQI.
3. Ver 2.1 Daily + Monthly Rosa Chart
Then, we conducted an experiment of combining the daily AQI chart and the monthly chart. The audience will initially see the monthly graph, and then they can drag one of the daily AQI rose charts into the two upper empty boxes to compare AQI levels on different dates. Through this data visualization, the audience can: 1) compare and contrast AQI levels on different days, and 2) observe not only the monthly trends but also easily identify the primary pollutant varying throughout the months by observing the predominant color direction in the daily chart.
These were the designs we’ve developed. However, in order to understand what users are actually thinking, our team decided to conduct a heuristic evaluation with potential audiences. The group we recruited was divided into two. The first group consisted of people with limited knowledge of AQI and no background in design or science. The second group comprised MS-HCI students at Georgia Tech who have knowledge in design and engineering. We expect they may provide design feedback for us.
Others: Data Visualization Charts Iterations
- Racing Chart, Blob Chart, Line Chart
