Project van de cursus

My project in Data Visualization and Information Design: Create a Visual Model course

van Katherine Alexander @kt_alexander

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My project in Data Visualization and Information Design: Create a Visual Model course - Information Design

For this first data visualisation I decided to follow the course CO2 emissions project but have started with 30 countries instead of 20, so I could capture China's data and see how it compares - as the largest emitter of CO2 emissions in 2020. The data is also updated to the most recent available data year - 2020.

Original scatter plot created through RawGraphs (30 countries)

Sketching out the variables and exploring ideas for the visual alphabet.

Establishing a visual language and distributing along the axis.

The image below is the first draft of the visualisation I sent to friends and family for their feedback. Elements that were not clear to them were: the CO2 emissions circles were hard to see, it wasn't obvious why there were 2 colours for the radial line 'fan' graphics, and why the circle and the fan graphics were overlapping.

On seeing the overall visualisation at this stage, I felt it wasn't working - as China and the United States were overlapping too much (even after expanding the horizontal and vertical axis in the previous drafts) and the total annual-CO2 emissions variable (green circles) of the other countries appeared so small by comparison to the larger ones.
I decided to adjust the visualisation to have just 20 countries for the next draft (based on the highest total emitting countries for 2020) and see if that allowed me to increase the size of the green circles, which were being lost in overall design. I waited until I had received the other feedback from family and friends, so I could make the alterations together.

Creating the introductory text and legend and fine-tuning the design.

Also, after looking afresh at the visualisation after a break, there were a few other changes I wanted to make as well: eg. redraw the 'fan' lines thinner (so the 'total-emissions' circles could be seen more clearly beneath), enlarge various text elements; add more depth to the circles with radial gradient etc, and other aesthetic changes. Below is the visualisation reduced to 20 countries and incorporating the feedback. (The United States and China are still overlapping but not quite as strongly, which allowed me to enlarge all the country's circles a little more.)

Fine-tuning the elements after feedback. Reducing down to 20 countries.

For the final draft below, I tried reversing the colours to sit on a dark background, as I still wasn't happy with how well the total-emissions circles were standing out.