Design Choices

The idea of collecting occupancy data actually embodies the people participating in the sports themselves. The Dourish reading says that meaning arises in the course of actions and embodiment is about establishing meaning. In this case, the actions of people who use the facility leads to the idea of occupancy, which is embodied in our data. Eventually, the data will influence those very actions, which then influence the data again. This is clearly embodied interaction at work.

I chose to visualize the data by filling up a transparent icon with color, and the amount to which it is filled, represents the level of occupancy. I chose a sports icon as it seemed fitting to represent each sports facility with the tools used in those facilities. However, the reason why I decided to use such a different form of visualization to represent data which was basically just a number (the number of people using a facility), was because of a point made in the reading ‘Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life’ - coming up with a unique design to transform otherwise ordinary objects and spaces, thus drawing our attention to the everyday conditions. Having just a number would not be eye-catching, whereas a colorful icon that continuously changes as the conditions change has visual appeal. I also decided to color the icons with the right colors for the objects, in order to embody the sport more.

I got the idea of filling up a transparent icon with color from the reading on ‘Graphical Excellence, page 16’. That page displays a sphere, containing millions of particles of data points. There is a difference is that the data represented there is clusters of galaxies, making it more geographical in nature, while my data is about the number of people in the same area.

For a simple number, using a table to show this number at different time periods might make more sense, but rather than showing just the number, what I really wanted users to be able to do was compare those numbers effectively. I needed to show the relative difference in those numbers at different times and allow users to be able to easily grasp this difference. In the ‘Graphical Excellence’ reading, William Playfair, the Scottish political economist, also said that graphics better allowed us to show the shape of the data in a comparative fashion as compared to a table. That is why I favored the use of graphics, as it made it visually easier to compare the difference in occupancy between different times. The reason why comparing the difference is so important is because it allows each user to be able to judge for themselves whether a certain occupancy level is acceptable for them or not.

However, I separated the dimension of date and time from the level of occupancy. This was because of the form of visualization I chose for the level of occupancy; it made it such that its effectiveness lies in the fact that it is one dimensional.

Also, I added jagged edges to the top of the filled up area instead of a straight line as it is similar to how musical sound waves are visualized in media players. It represents energy and activeness, two things that are vital in any sport. Furthermore, the jagged edges instantly draw attention to the end point of where the color ends, which is the actual substance of the data, that represents the relative occupancy level. I also used blinking exclamation points as it instills a sense of caution in users - It makes them reconsider whether they should use the facility at that time or not. Once again, I try to draw the user’s attention to the most important point of data at those conditions. This connects to the point about how the visualization should not draw away from the actual substance but allude to it.Thus, my data visualization emobides a forceful point of view in the various way it uses visuals as a medium for communicating the data to the users.