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Master's HCI Project: Viewconomy

About: Viewconomy is a visualization of the effect of automotive plant closures in Michigan. It depicts the change of economic conditions over a period of 5 years, details of each automotive plant and impact of plant shut down on surrounding areas.

Client: IRLEE CEAP

Objective: Enhance the client's decision making process by helping them visualize economic data of distressed communities through interactive maps.

View prototype

Design Process:

• Interview stakeholders to understand the need and usage of the vizualization.
• Conduct research on the plant closures and it's impact on the economy. Gather data to be displayed in the maps.
• Based on the information gathered, several rounds of sketching and brainstorming were required to determine the best information representation techniques.
• Sketches and ideas were presented to the client and with the feedback received, the designs were converted to hi-fidelity prototypes.
• The visualization required many rounds of testing to ensure that the color scheme, interactions and data presentation were easy to undertsand and intuitive.

Outcome: The visualization was very successful with the client and they are considering implementing the visualization to use on a daily basis. The maps have various useful features that provide information about automotive plant closures, economic conditions and impact on surrounding areas.

Tools and Programming used: Illustrator, InDesign, HTML, CSS