Participation in the Design Process

Customized Visualizations through User Involvement

In an article for Spektrum der Wissenschaft, our Senior PI Hinrich Schulenburg describes why research must take evolutionary processes into account in order to tackle the antibiotics crisis sustainably. For the online version of this article, KielSCN designer Björn Döge has developed various interactive visualizations that illustrate the research results. Readers can also actively participate in the design process and thus help to improve these infographics with their perspective.

Implementation of the Project

In order to involve both non-experts and experts, for example in the field of design or programming, we have offered various modes of participation. Users can compare two different versions of a graphic directly in the article or set their own personal preferences. By implementing the project in an Observable Notebook, users can also view the code behind the visualization. They can leave comments or suggest changes and thus contribute directly to the design of the infographics. However, participation was not as active as expected, which leads us to believe that the removal of barriers and stronger user guidance are necessary to effectively encourage participation.

The Aims of the Project

The project aims to interest the public in scientific topics through direct participation in the design process and to motivate them to contribute to communication products. Through this participation, we hope to gain new perspectives and an improved understanding of the communicated content. Through the interdisciplinary collaboration with the journalists at Spektrum der Wissenschaft, we are also building a bridge between science and the media. At the same time, we were also interested in testing the use of observable notebooks as a participation platform.

Go directly to the Observable notebook here

Jump directly to the article on the Spektrum website (in German only)