Visualization Design Practices in a Crisis: Behind the Scenes with COVID-19 Dashboard Creators

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of data visualizations were created to inform the public about the rapidly evolving crisis. Data dashboards, a form of information dissemination used during the pandemic, have facilitated this process by visualizing statistics regarding the number of COVID-19 cases over time. Prior work on COVID-19 visualizations has primarily focused on the design and evaluation of specific visualization systems from technology-centered perspectives. However, little is known about what occurs behind the scenes during the visualization creation processes, given the complex sociotechnical contexts in which they are embedded. Yet, such ecological knowledge is necessary to help characterize the nuances and trajectories of visualization design practices in the wild, as well as generate insights into how creators come to understand and approach visualization design on their own terms and for their own situated purposes. In this research, we conducted a qualitative interview study among dashboard creators from federal agencies, state health departments, mainstream news media outlets, and other organizations that created (often widely-used) COVID-19 dashboards to answer the following questions: how did visualization creators engage in COVID-19 dashboard design, and what tensions, conflicts, and challenges arose during this process? Our findings detail the trajectory of design practices-from creation to expansion, maintenance, and termination-that are shaped by the complex interplay between design goals, tools and technologies, labor, emerging crisis contexts, and public engagement. We particularly examined the tensions between designers and the general public involved in these processes. These conflicts, which often materialized due to a divergence between public demands and standing policies, centered around the type and amount of information to be visualized, how public perceptions shape and are shaped by visualization design, and the strategies utilized to deal with (potential) misinterpretations and misuse of visualizations. Our findings and lessons learned shed light on new ways of thinking in visualization design, focusing on the bundled activities that are invariably involved in human and nonhuman participation throughout the entire trajectory of design practice.

Misleading Beyond Visual Tricks: How People Actually Lie with Charts

“…This fact underscores the importance of safeguarding against online audiences using data visualizations to make inaccurate conclusions, and recent research confirms that this is a pressing concern. Lee et al [34] show that different users draw different conclusions from the same COVID-19 visualizations, and work by Zhang et al [74] documents that many COVID-19 dashboard and visualization designers express concerns that their work could be misinterpreted or misused. A gap in knowledge, however, still exists about how how data visualizations on social media can contribute to the spread of misinformation.…”

“…Researchers have expressed concern that with the increasing prevalence and complexity of interactive visualizations, nonexpert viewers are more likely to misinterpret visualizations created by experts and identify spurious correlations [46]. Recent work also confirms that public health visualization dashboard designers should consider the possibility that their work can be used to mislead people [74]. The authors underscore the importance of expert A user shows two charts to highlight the fact that although Iceland is more vaccinated than Nigeria, it is experiencing more COVID-19 cases, implying that vaccines are not effective.…”