Diagnosing Design Problems in Public-facing Environmental Visualizations

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Dr. Mike Gerst

ESSIC

Monday March 4, 2019, 12:00-1:00 PM

ESSIC Conference Room 4102, 5825 University Research Ct, College Park, MD 20740

Abstract:

Environmental science is increasingly used for decision-making and informing the general public about environmental issues. Often the first form of communication used is visualization of scientific data and information because images can be understood more quickly than text and effectively draw an audience’s attention. However, a poorly designed visualization can be worse than none at all, leading to misinterpretation of the science. This is compounded by the visual intuition of the average scientist often not being aligned with best visualization practice.

Recently, visual diagnostic guidelines have been produced, which synthesize best practices and results from the visualization science literature. In this talk we show how these guidelines can be applied to well-known visualizations, specifically the U.S. Global Change Research Program Indicators and the NOAA Climate Prediction Center temperature and precipitation outlooks. Using online survey methods, we show that basic modifications can be made that greatly improve how well end-users and the general public understand scientific visualizations.

Bio-sketch:

Dr. Gerst is a Research Assistant Professor at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of Maryland, College Park. His work is concerned with improving how science is used in decision-making. These activities span from understanding user and stakeholder needs to synthesizing interdisciplinary scientific information to developing/testing decision support tools. His more recent work has focused on testing data visualization conventions in environmental science applications and improving how models are used in environmental decision-making. Before working at ESSIC, he was on the faculty at Dartmouth College. He received his Ph.D. in engineering from Yale University.

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