Thames-Pulse : Such Live Data Artwork – Much Sophisticated to Understand 

Akshar Takle

Organised by river charity Thames21 and made by artist Jason Bruges, the artwork shows different displays according to whether the water quality in Thames is improving, declining, or stable compared with the previous day’s data.

Checkout the video below:

The external lights on Sea Container building, next to Thames in London are meant to change according to live data on the water quality of the river Thames.  It provides a striking visual display of health of the water flowing past, by using data from samples that are taken daily.

But how is one supposed to interpret this sophisticated live action data viz?

Lets see what data is meant to be conveyed about the health of the river:

The artwork displays one of three patterns based on whether the water quality is improving, static or declining compared to the previous week’s data reading.

  • Declining water quality: lighting is largely green and static
  • Static: lighting becomes more animated: a blue ‘wave’ sweeps across building
  • Improving: pink and blue lights pulsate furiously up and down the frontage.

I think the visualization fails to convey the intended message to the audience largely because of wrong choice of colors.

Color plays a crucial role in transmitting a psychological message to the audience.

  • Green is a color is generally linked to nature, peace, well-being and freshness. If used to represent declining water quality, people can easily misinterpret it to be the opposite.
  • Similarly, a shade of red color speeds up the heart rate and conveys a message of danger.

I conclusion, the user experience should be also taken into consideration and not merely the aesthetics for a visualization to be effective.

References:

http://londonist.com/london/best-of-london/now-you-can-see-how-healthy-the-thames-is

http://www.thames21.org.uk/Pulse/