Visual designs
We gathered together to have our initial brainstorming session on possible design choices about how to visualize our data in a nice and understandable way. In the first phase (diverge), each of us came up with different ideas to visually represent our data set. These preliminary sketches can be seen on our Miro board. https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lOCRyYc=/
Picture of the miro board:
Some of the visualizations are explained below. Mainly, these are the ideas to represent as much data as possible in a compact visualization.
This is a data prism that aims to visualize as much of the data as possible to get an overview of the evolution of the resources over time per country, continent and according to GDP. The dimensions display different variables of importance.
· Countries are separated per row, grouped per continent and sorted by GDP.
· Energy sources are separated per column.
· Time is separated yearly, in the third dimension.
Averages are represented as projections in the additional planes. The type of data that is averaged is determined by the orientation of the plane.
The aim of this world map is to present the complete data set interactively. The data for each country is displayed as a heat map. The kind of data can be chosen by the user by clicking the desired settings in the side windows. In the lower right graph, the top X countries for a certain setting can be viewed in more detail.
This visualization aims to represent the data in a hierarchical structure to get an overview of which countries favor what resource. The left column in the first level orders the resources according to the most widely used ones globally. In the second level, continents are ordered according to their use of the corresponding resource. In the third level, the countries in the corresponding continents are ordered by GDP. The sizes of the lines indicate their use of the corresponding energy source.
This network structure aims to present an overview of all countries based on their energy characteristics. Each node represents a country. The data for all different energy sources are used to create a network of the countries, where neighboring countries show close energy characteristics.
This grid aims to compare the energy characteristics for different countries as well. A honeycomb grid is created with each hexagon showing a spider web plot for a specific country. The spider web plot is based on the data of the different energy resources.
This visualization aims to check the differences in continental energy characteristics based on all countries. The data for all resources are combined in a spider web plot. Each web represents one country and different colors represent different continents. Along the axis of each resource, a time evolution is present, as a violin plot, for the global use in that energy source.
The potential use of the sketches in the next phases: After finalizing the preliminary sketches, we are ready to go to the second phase (emerge). In the second phase, we decided to group our sketches according to our research questions.
· What are the different transition patterns in energy resources and how do they differ over countries and continents?
· Can the data from the past give us insights into the future?
· Is there a trend for GDP/Capita and HDI to favor certain types of energy?
After the grouping process, we will be ready to go to the last phase (converge). In this phase, we will assess our designs from the emerge phase and will discuss about possible combinations to create more compact visualizations. Also, we will perform a NUF test, which stands for Novelty, Usefulness and Feasibility. Then, we will be ready to dive into the analysis process.
During the later steps, we might still have new visualization ideas. In that case, they will be evaluated and possibilities of further improvements will be discussed.
