The Role of UX Principles in Visualizing COVID-19 Better
A large number of COVID-19 datasets are available on the internet from multiple sources. Many organizations are converting these datasets into visualizations, thus providing an easy-to-understand information to the public. These visualizations help authorities and health industries in making decisions based on the latest trends. In addition, there are research scholars as well as the general public, who are utilizing these visualizations for their research and other benefits.
Creating visualizations using a tool by providing it a dataset as input is no longer a complex task. Anyone familiar with such a tool can easily create a visualization that shows the real-time information and trends of COVID-19 for the general public. However, creating a visualization for a sensitive topic like COVID-19 needs special care and a sense of responsibility. COVID-19 is a topic that invokes negative thoughts in our minds. We are daily listening the news about deaths resulting from COVID-19 around the globe. Many people are dying without even showing any symptoms of the pandemic. So, it is natural that whenever we look at a COVID-19 visualization, we expect to see a negative picture. When did you last see a chart showing recovery cases? We need to balance this impact to avoid the panic resulting from such visuals.
We need to balance of visual data for Corona-19 because panic increases with the negative visuals. When last have you seen a chart showing recovery case— Anthony Phills
To save people from this undue panic, it is important that COVID-19 visualizations present the whole picture of the situation, and not the negative side of the story alone. This purpose can be achieved by creating visualizations with the help of UX design principles.
Below are a few UX principles, with examples, that can help you create effective visualizations for COVID-19.
- Don’t ignore the first impression
- Emphasize the useful information
- Show the relevance properly
- Use the colors wisely
- Use sensible visualizations
Don’t Ignore the First Impression
People see a visualization and get an idea of the given information in just a few seconds. If we see the below representation of COVID-19, the way the information is provided can easily make us panic in no time. At first glance, it seems that different areas of the world are badly infected, with almost no population left behind that remained safe from the virus. This can be clearly observed in the areas like Europe and the United States. However, if we look at the actual stats, we find that there is a total of 3309 cases per 1 million population of the United States, which is 0.3% of the total population. Also, the affected regions are shown in the red, which would create unnecessary horror in the viewers’ minds.
Emphasize the Useful Information
While presenting the COVID-19 data, it is important to emphasize the useful part of the data. The most important information should be prominent on the dashboard or map. The visualization below displays the COVD-19 data for the United States in three different ways. If you look closer, the map shown in ‘Totals by Location’ group does not provide any useful information. At the same time, it is covering one third of the dashboard area, hence limiting the area for the rest of the charts. Presenting the information in a useful way could make the visualizations more beneficial for the viewers.
In addition, the visualizations do not include any information about the recovered cases, which constitute a larger part of the confirmed cases. This makes it a negatively biased information
Show the Relevance Properly
When presenting relevant information in a dashboard, show it in a way that users can easily recognize and relate the given content. The example below shows the data related to COVID-19 cases in different variants of the red color. It is hard to differentiate the areas and make a comparison between them. The color combination used here does not define the regional boundaries clearly
Use the Colors Wisely
Use a sensible color scheme to grab the users’ attention and help them understand the reality. The chart below displays the active cases of COVID-19 in Italy. The active cases are represented in the red color and significant growth in the red line can create a wrong perception. It hides the truth that most of the infected people will survive.
Use Suitable Visualizations
Since the rates of COVID-19 cases vary greatly among different regions of a country or state, there is a need to choose an appropriate visualization to represent these cases. The bar chart below gives a very limited idea of the situation. It only reveals that Hubei has a very high rate of infections as compared to other regions.
Using a map chart instead, as shown below, would provide a useful sense of the comparative pandemic prevalence in the country.
Conclusion
Visualization dashboards are powerful tools to show an easy-to-understand picture of the coronavirus situation. It is the responsibility of the designers to ensure the usage of UX principles to make these visualizations understandable, unbiased, and relevant. It’s important to focus on the recoveries as well while showing confirmed cases. It’s unfair to represent entire regions as death zones. Highlighting the positive side of the situation will help people deal with the pandemic in a healthy way. After all, psychology is believed to play a vital role in the COVID-19 recovery process.
Related Article: CoVid-19 brings UX to Healthcare
