Increasingly our engagements with clients require us to consider data visualisations as a solution. The reasons for this range from a desire to present complex information in a more meaningful and engaging way, to handling large internal data sets (a need created by organisations collecting more data around users and their interactions).
In this DbyE we tried to consider a more engaging way to browse a large repository of content with multiple taxonomies.
The main need from a user perspective is to easily see potential correlations between top level taxonomies and the various connections that emerge from this. The solution would need to be part browser part interactive tool.
Findings:
* Visualising relationships – connections, related information and taxonomies, location, targets.
* Focus – the ability for the user to focus on specific points to reveal related taxonomies and emergent meanings.
* Relative sizing / colour (ways of indicating size, importance).
* Filtering larger data sets into smaller easier to manage chunks.
* UI display relative to the content criteria.
* Surfing / jumping between content types to allow for more playful user engagement.
Overall, part of the issue was the relative size of the data sets. Smaller sets have potentially lower engagement, the larger sets could become meaningless (unless more taxonomical data can be applied).
The main challenge is to make the visualisation meaningful.