Visualization

Challenge & Selection

I am a researcher and within my group we gather a lot of scientific data which we deem as important.  Most of the time, scientific data from experiments turns out to be a lot of numbers, which includes  many complicated names and processes. Therefore, for many of the co-workers, this data can be very  confusing and consequently, the focus within the group gets lost easily. This poses a challenge, since  these stakeholders also should have a say of what the company should be going forward with, as well  as be informed of the company’s activity in a way that is understandable. This causes some challenge  when it comes to communication between parts of the company.

For this essay I have chosen the tool of Visualization. Visualization involves principals in which data  can be presented in clear visual representations to enhance the uptake of content. As Angela Myer  mentions in her visualization lecture from this course, you do not have artistic and drawing for  visualization, but visual thinking. Visualization is quite broad, and its purpose is to communicate  information or a message can be used in an infinite matter. These include animations, diagrams,  animations and pictures. Visualization is good for many different projects, for this specific project it  would be great due to the difficulty in the scientific content and large data that is involved, in which  you have to know a lot of the research to even understand much of the results. This is why we would  use visualization to make all our stakeholders understand how our current research is going.

Application

The tool of visualization was applied to convert scientific numbers and data to adapt into clear pictures  and figures that are easy to understand. This was done with specific programmes that are specialized to  use plenty of data to create simplistic figures, one of them being tableau. The thinking process was  made in exploration of different medical compounds and its’ effect in clear shapes and colors to  represent these compounds. This made the presentation go more efficient for the group, since they  both got an understanding as to how the compounds were used step by step, but also understood the  results more clearly.

Insight & Approach

By applying visualization as a tool, it made me realize that the project meetings had a heightened  focus from the stakeholders, higher input, and a higher understanding of the project itself. Due to the  higher understanding, more questions and suggestions came from the stakeholders and new  perspective was gained to the research group. There were still improvements on the results and figures  that could be made, however, it is always hard to convert a stack of data into something that is easy to  understand for everybody. What visualization taught me, is that there are multiple ways of showing  what the researchers have achieved. If that becomes clear, everyone understands, and can therefore be  heard since they will have an opinion about it. And as in all kind of statistics and data, the higher the  quantity and quality of information from people, the better the information and perspective will be  gained.

This approach chosen I deem to be correct for the challenge that it had faced, however, there are other  tools that are available that might help just as much or give support along the way. I believe that Mind  mapping would be a great technique, both in the researcher group, and in the whole group in general.

It has many applications in the researcher group. Conducted studies from Cunningham (2005) revealed  that approximately 80% of biology students thought that ‘’mind mapping helped them understand  concept and ideas in science’’. I believe that standing together and drawing a mind map of how and  where to go next on the project, and what links information, patterns, and results that are gained and to  see what is in common. I also think, if adapted properly, it could be a great tool for the stakeholders as  well.

