Pittsburgh Zoo Data-Driven Display - Data Visualization
A proposal for a fun and accessible display to inform and enhance the visitor experience at the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium.
October - November 2022
Class: Interaction Design Studio I
Teammates: Rebecca Jiang and Lawrence Zheng
Skills Used: Data Visualization, Designing for Personas, Figma
Consolidates information for a variety of visitor needs, with a soft, visually-friendly design.
Visuals update with motion to reflect location specific information within the zoo.
Process Work
This project was developed through the use of personas and iterative prototypes.
Personas
By the very nature of its business, the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium serves visitors from all walks of life. People from different age groups, backgrounds, and lifestyles will have varying needs for an informative data-driven display in order for the design to effectively enhance their experience visiting the zoo.
Starting with the data on the zoo’s venues, activities, services, sponsors, and transportation, sticky notes were used to brainstorm the various interests each persona would have in different pieces of data.
Iterative Prototypes
An important part of the development process for this project was making and presenting iterative prototypes. This project faced the design challenge of trying to convey a large amount of information with clarity in both presentation and organization. Presenting various iterations helped to identify and ideate solutions for problems related to contrast. color legibility, distracting motion, and hierarchy among others. The lessons learned from the feedback that these prototypes elicited, were invaluable guides to the development and evolution of the display.
Train Map Design Progression
One of the major components of the display is the map showing the various stations and venues associated with them. The original version was a simplified version of the stations as shown on the PGH Zoo Map (shown in the graphic below). Then, animated trains on the abstracted map would help visitors know where the trains were and when the nearest train would arrive at their station. However, the feedback that my team and I got, indicated that this approach had a lot of visual clutter and took up a lot of space in the design. They pointed out that the three trains were distracting to visitors who only wanted to know about wait times for a train to get to their station. Additionally, the use of the same graphic language for stations with habitats and stations without habitats could be confusing.
To address these concerns, the design shifted to a simplified oval shape. This added clarity to the way the information was presented and also allowed for the opportunity to use less screen real estate and put information about the animals at each venue in the center of the component. Using less screen real estate allowed us to add information about train arrival times, and visitor travel times, as well as showcase each habitat’s corporate sponsors. Additionally, we differentiated the graphic for stations with animal habitats and those without, to further clarify the distinctions between stations.
Visual Component Development
Based on the feedback we received from the early versions of this design, the focus of the visual component development was improving legibility and clarity through contrast and color.
The added screen real estate created on the left portion of the display allowed us to move information that was originally displayed on the right to the left. Taking advantage of this increased screen real estate allowed for a cleaner organization of information and the ability to showcase informational hierarchy visually.
Additionally, the design developed through a modification of the color scheme. The contrast was increased from the earlier prototypes to the final in order to increase readability and better distinguish the data from the negative space.
One strategy for how we iterated the color scheme and tested the contrast was by using grayscale versions of the design. This allowed us to quickly test to make sure that there was color harmony, good visual contrast, and legibility in the design.
Brainstorming Through Sketch
In order to generate ideas for how different aspects of the dataset could be visualized, rapidly created sketches were used as a part of the ideation process. In the spirit of Bill Buxton, these sketches were quickly made and disposable, allowing my partners and I to easily collaborate and compare ideas.
Reflection
This project was eye-opening in translating how the application of the foundation skills we learned at the start of the class translated into interpretations by the audience of any given data-driven display. Concepts of grids, color hue and value, text weight, and font choice, among others, drove our team’s design, but there was a lot of trial and error in experimenting with how they affected the user experience.
At the beginning of the project, I personally thought that as long as the information was clear, legible, and succinct, if the relevant information was placed closer together, and a grid was used to organize and unify the visual composition, then, the display would be effective and appeal to a broad audience of users.
However, I found that the conflict of different goals of personas desiring information complicated the simplicity of this approach, and once we added motion, the design had the added conflict of different sections competing with each other for attention, increasing distractions and decreasing clarity and useability. I found that as our group iterated, our design became more successful as we began to cull unnecessary motions, simplify existing animations, and group information into larger and clearer blocks, using color and visual proximity to organize information. What I learned primarily as a result of this process was that the more information that you try to present on a given display, the more simplified and direct you should make the presentation.
Designing with a group was also helpful in getting me out of my typical design thinking. The benefits of working in a group for interaction design had positive design impacts.
Far beyond merely being a means of dividing up work, collaboration is a means of pooling together different backgrounds and understandings of the world, that can help make broader appealing designs. Considering that a major part of the process for this project was designing around personas, our group’s ability to draw on our different backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge helped us come up with and veto ideas essential to the useability and legibility of our design.