Mega What? World’s Largest and Notable Energy Sources
Questions:
1. What story does it tell? (Maria)
This data visualisation example focuses on displaying the world’s largest energy sources. Particularly showing how much energy each of the biggest power plants around the world generate each day through using a single metric of daily megawatt hours. This data visualisation example was also created in order to help assess the current global energy use and brainstorm how to eliminate carbon by 2050.
2. How does it tell it? (Daniel)
The data visualisation uses a large set of bar charts comparing the places which produce highest Megawatts of power within a certain type of power production method. Each energy source has its charts grouped and compared along with all the other energy sources. With every bar chart aligned along side each other it clearly identifies the sources which produce the most amount of energy. To assist the bar charts there is a number of megawatts per hour positioned alongside each bar to make it clearer to the reader to see the exact amount of energy produced. Along the right side of the visualisation there is information which aligns with a specific source EG: Kamuthi produces enough power for 1 million people in India. The use of this information allows the reader to understand how much the power is worth.
3. Does it allow for different levels of interrogation that can be seen or used on the part of the reader? eg can they drill down to discover more detail? (Daniel)
The reader is able to interrogate the information in different ways such as comparing the size of the charts alongside each other to compare power each energy source produces in comparison to the other. The reader is able to look into the major power production sources within each category and is able to see how much it is worth through the additional information that assists the visualisation. The reader can also make sense of how much each source dominates worldwide through a smaller chart showing the percentage of each source worldwide. Below the visualisation there is an interactive calculator which allows the user to input information and create data specific for the user to engage more with the information and gain a better understanding. Demonstration: Use the interactive calculator in class
- Daily Megawatts used by…
- Enough daily Megawatts for…
- MW to MWh
There is also an option for those who are interested in the data to explore the spreadsheet with all the raw data.
4. Are you able to create multiple stories from it? If so what are they? (Teya)
As mentioned, the interactive calculator gives the user an engaging experience to utilise. The interactive generates multiple stories from the data in a simplified manner and allows the user to easily digest the information in comparison to more traditional forms of data presentation, such as a table or graph.
5. What can you say about the visual design- layout, colour, typography,visualisation style? (Group)
Colour: Bar charts for each source of power are colour coded to make it easy for the reader to identify the source of power and the comparison between other power sources.
Layout: The bar chart is designed to scroll downward on the device having the bar chart to read from left to right working downwards making it easy for readers to follow through the information.
Typography: The typography used on the bar chart is a san serif typeface. Where it clearly and evenly spaced out, allowing easy reading for the intended audience even at a small typeface size.
Style: The site generally sticks to a simple and rather minimalistic style which is somewhat similar to material design. It also utilises colour in order to differentiate between sets of data.
6.What improvements would you suggest? (Teya)
One of the main improvements we thought would be necessary was the interactive calculator. Although it is an incredibly useful source, it could use a little colour to differentiate between the different tabs rather than just a darker shade of blue. The interactive would also aesthetically benefit from having little icons within each button to represent what each one is.
7. Where does the data come from, and comment on it’s source. (Maria)
The data found has all come from various global energy sites and databases that all focus on accurately collecting daily global energy use data. The data has also come from various countries government databases, therefore making the sources credible.
Daniel Krivacic Data Visualisation 