The happy couple: UX design and data visualisation

The happy couple
UX design & data visualisation
Francis Rowland
Hinxton Services Forum
May 9, 2013
Thursday, 9 May 2013

Made for each other
The happy couple: UX design and data visualisation
May 9, 2013
Data visualisation and user experience (UX) design go hand-in-hand.
Since visualisations have an audience (the users, if you will) then methods and concepts from
the UX design world can be applied to help make them as good as they can be.
This is particularly the case when we are working on interactive visualisations.

Design is a process
Miriah Myer - design study methodology
Andy Kirk - a ﬁve-step plan
Noah Iliinsky - the reader, the designer, the data
May 9, 2013
Design isn’t a veneer that you add at the end.
Data visualisation expert Noah Iliinsky says that as soon as you begin to make choices about
your visualisation, you are designing.
Following a process can help you make sense of visualisation challenges and make the most
of your data

Design is a process
“Double diamond” stylised/idealised view
Problem space > Solution space
May 9, 2013
The Design Council have a great graphic that illustrates an ideal, somewhat stylised design
process.
We have the “problem space”, where we get to grips with the data visualisation challenge,
exploring possibilities, testing assumptions, and learning about the audience.
Then we have the “solution space”, where you begin to develop solutions based on what
we’ve learned, and we evaluate them in different ways.

Design is a process
Things are messy
Figuring out what to make > Making things
May 9, 2013
In reality, things are messy, of course.
The key thing is that we allow ourselves a period of divergent thinking about a design
challenge, before converging on a deﬁned problem that we want to solve.
Then we have another period of divergent thinking around possible solutions, before we
converge on the thing that actually gets built.
We ﬁgure out what to make... then we make it.

Figuring out what to make
Explore your data
dimensions, features, challenges
May 9, 2013
Experts such as Andy Kirk, Noah Iliinsky and Nathan Yau write about how you can approach
your data and learn about it’s edges and features.
What can you do with it? What are the limitations?

Learn about the audience
latent needs, pain points, opportunities
May 9, 2013
Data visualisation experts fully accept that we should consider the audience in our design
process.
Here we are on very familiar UX design territory: particularly thinking about user research,
and getting to know your audience.
It data visualisation projects, perhaps the most straightforward way to learn about your
audience is to interview them. We’re lucky to have access to people using the things we make
(at conference and training sessions), so capitalise on that. Talk to them.
Don’t expect them to give you solutions. Rather, learn how they think about a topic; how they
describe it; how you could frame your visualisation in a way that makes sense to them.

Deﬁne things
purpose, goals, audience, interactive/static, success?
May 9, 2013
What do you, the designer, want to achieve with this visualisation?
What do you want your audience to understand or to be able to do?
Will the visualisation be static or interactive... or do you need both?
And maybe... how are you going to evaluate it and measure its success?
Having deﬁned boundaries can help you decide what, and what not, to include in your design.

Making things
This is usually where people start
Photo: jimabeles / Flickr
May 9, 2013
The risk of making the wrong thing is high, particularly when you’re working on interactive
visualisations. Of course, you might get it right, and conventions can take you a long way.
But perhaps you’re missing out.

Making things
SKETCHING
You do this a lot.
I’ve seen you.
May 9, 2013
Sketching, not drawing. This isn’t art.
It is an excellent way of visualising and communicating ideas.
It is cheap and easy (not art, remember!).

Making things
INSPIRATION
What are other people doing?
Jonas Löwgren’s ﬂashcards
Gamestorming: tools for
thinking
Jonas Löwgren’sVisualization Catalogue
May 9, 2013
If you’re working on something novel, or you’re thinking that you want to explore something
unconventional, where do you start?
Well, based on what you’ve learned about your data and your audience, and what you know
you want to convey or make possible with your visualisation, you can begin exploring.

Experimentation
Give yourself some room
Fail (cheaply), explore alternatives,
collaborate, stay away from your computer
May 9, 2013
Allow yourself room for some divergent thinking when it comes to possible ways to deliver
your visualisation. The potential downside of starting to code something up is that you can
end up so far down one path that you don’t want to try anything else and you don’t want to
throw away what you’ve got!

Communication
Back of the napkin...
Can you communicate what you want to visualise?
May 9, 2013
Can you quickly explain how you want to visualise your data?
Can you sketch how it might look and how the audience can use it (if it’s interactive).
Keep it simple - you can even test things with people at coffee breaks...

Resources
Data Visualization: a successful design process - Andy Kirk
Designing Data Visualizations - Noah Iliinsky & Julie Steele
Visualize This - Nathan Yau
Interviewing for Research - Andrew Travers
Interviewing Users - Steve Portigal
u
Evaluating Information Visualizations (paper) - Sheelagh Carpendale
Universal Principles of Design - Lidwell, Kritina, Butler
Sketching the User Experience - Bill Buxton
Gamestorming - Gray, Brown, Macanufo
User research (slides) - Francis Rowland
Design Study Methodology - Sedlmair, Meyer, Munzner
Design process: double diamond model - Design Council
Spark ideas for information visualisation - Francis Rowland (covers Jonas Löwgren’s card deck)
Points of View for Nature Methods - Bang Wong
May 9, 2013
Bedtime reading?
Also, don’t forget that the Vizbi conference (see vizbi.org) is all about data visualisation
aimed at biologists.

The happy couple: UX design and data visualisation

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