Embedded Files
What is the Purpose?
What is the Purpose?
The purpose of this visualization is to put into perspective the amount of CO₂ that gets put into the atmosphere using different scales that we can easily understand. Many times, a user will get presented some large numbers, but have no way of visualization how massive that number could be or even understand the scale of that number.
Here the user is presented with some visualization that has the amount of CO₂ as a cube having a fix unit size compared to some common monuments that most people can recognize and know their scale. According to the application developer, the unit size of each cube of CO₂ is on a 1 meter scale grid. The application also provides the car that the user drives as a way to put the scale of the CO₂ cubes into perspective.
Given the scale of the each unit of CO₂, a user can also get a perspective of how much CO₂ a single coal plant puts into the atmosphere.
What is the Data?
What is the Data?
All the data presented in this visualization has to do with CO₂ production. Some data may have to do with CO₂ production of different countries while other data may have to do with production from other sources such as power plants. Some of information points that a user can collect on the map tell us facts about overall production for the year 2018.
According to the game, the data is source from Our World In Data, which can be accessed at the link.
On the website, one can explore the data presented in further detail. There are details such as: how much CO₂ the average person emits, how much a country emits annually, the percent change in CO₂ emission, etc.
Kazam_screencast_00024.mp4How was the Data Collected?
How was the Data Collected?
As mentioned before, the data used for this visualization is sourced from Our World in Data. On this website, clicking the link to download their data takes you to their github page.
On the github page, there is a section that tells the viewer where the websites sources are from.
These websites all collect information from various institutions that collect the data specified and its different variations. As one can imagine, there are several different methods of collection at these institutions that may not be publicly available.
Which Users Was this Made For?
Which Users Was this Made For?
Since this visualization is presented in the form of a game, one can say that this visualization is tailored towards children for learning in the classroom. However, this game was made with the intention to educate the common person, so this visualization is really for the common person who has no sense of the scale at which we are producing CO₂.
What Questions Do People Want to Ask?
What Questions Do People Want to Ask?
Since the visualization presents users with different scales of CO₂ production, the user may be curious about what the production of CO₂ may look like. They may ask how much a coal plant produces, or how much a car produces. Others may ask how a country produces.
For the more environmentally wary, one may ask how this affects the earth with respect to climate change and what the severity of the CO₂ production is.
How Can they Find the Answers with this Tool?
How Can they Find the Answers with this Tool?
An easy way to find answers with this tool is to go around and collect the information icons that are scattered around the map.
Each icon has information pertaining to what view is in front of the user. In the image below, the icon presents information about the cube that the user can see in front of them, which is a ton of CO₂.
The next icon presents the user with information about the production of CO₂ from power plants. Now that the user knows how a ton of CO₂ looks like, the user can now start to piece together the scale at which power plants produce CO₂.
Another method is to visit the source itself which provides some more details about the data presented.
What Works?
What Works?
One of the things that this visualization does well is the way it presents scale. Instead of having the user just see the comparison between two items, a user can actually get up close and experience the scale. One of the examples given in the visualization is that it takes about 3 minutes to skydive from the top of a gigaton cube of CO₂. The user can actually get on top of the cube and be in the air for 3 minutes free falling from the top of the cube.
What Needs Improvement?
What Needs Improvement?
While this is an already well-made visualizations, there are a few things that can be improved. The controls for the car are a little too sensitive. At times it feels too hard to collect the information icons because of the sensitive controls. The arrows on the screen are presented at buttons, but the user cannot press them, so removing them in favor of an overlay at the beginning may be a better choice.
The accessibility to this visualization may also need some improvement. This visualization requires the use of OpenGL, which some lower end computers may not be able to run in a browser.
Page updated
Report abuse