2016 Data Storytelling Studio @ MIT

One of my Graduate Resident Tutors (GRTs), Sathya Silva, gave her thesis defense yesterday on the topic of divergence between human assumptions and actual state in aircraft. In short, the divergence framework she built examines how differences between pilots’ mental models of the state of the aircraft they are flying (i.e. throttle setting, landing gear position, etc.) and the actual state contribute to accidents and postulates mitigations for these divergence events. Her presentation (slides here) drew on a variety of sources, including previous research and aircraft incident reports. I’d like to focus on slide 33 in particular:

This slide comes after more detailed analysis of a number of incidents during flight and shows visually timing information for each incident in the divergence framework. The use of lines that split and come together again, with visual markers for recovery time, loss of control time, and impact times, highlight the extent of divergence in each case, any subsequent re-convergence, and the relative timing in events. One of the main takeaways from this aggregate view is that in many cases the difference between fatal and non-fatal incidents was not that convergence did not happen, but that it it happened without enough time left for a full recovery, proving insight into a possible mitigation strategy.

The audience for this defense was her thesis committee, as well as friends and family attending the defense. In addition to Sathya’s main goal of passing the defense, the presentation was meant to lay out the concepts behind divergence to provide evidence for the thesis; slide 33 in particular highlights patterns in these incidents in the context of the divergence framework. The presentation overall was effective in achieving its goals; the novel divergence visualizations provide at-a-glance comprehension in the divergence framework and demonstrate its effectiveness in highlight patterns. The thesis committee agreed that this was a great presentation – congratulations Dr. Silva on passing your thesis defense!

Explore the visualization here!

Bloomberg Politics put out a beautiful data visualization in light of the recent election of Paul Ryan to Speaker of the House. While their chosen title highlights the recent trend of Speakers no longer working for the government after the gig, there is actually a treasure trove of information to explore here. All past Speakers are listed, and their involvement in various government positions are represented in a timeline. There are also several options at the top to highlight each position, with various callouts providing more facts.

Continue reading Paul Ryan vs. other Speakers of the House

Heads Up Concussion

Concussion graphic

This poster provides information about the danger of concussion in sports. It is organized into a number of different rectangles, and each rectangle conveys a different point about concussion, with a loose progression from the top to the bottom. The goal of this poster is to keep kids safe during sports by educating people who may be in contact with them, but may be unfamiliar with what to do when a head injury occurs.  In most cases this likely includes parents and coaches (assuming that athletic trainers or school nurses have already been educated).

This poster attempts to accomplish its goal by starting off with a scary statistic about head injuries in kids, and then proceeding to give information about how to help kids avoid becoming a statistic. It urges adults to have kids wear helmets, and also provides information about concussion symptoms, and what to do if a kid sustains a head injury. I like the simplicity of the graphics, and the way it doesn’t provide an overwhelming amount of information, which makes the information it does provide more accessible, and thus more powerful. However, in some places I found the information a little too simple, to the point where it became overly vague. For example, the “scary statistic” mentions TBI, not concussion, which is in the title, yet fails to define TBI as traumatic brain injury. It is unlikely that adults who are learning about concussion for the first time would be familiar with the acronym TBI.  It also does not provide information about when an athlete should not only be removed from play, but should also seek immediate emergency help, which seems like an important oversight, and it doesn’t indicate what might happen if a player returns to play with a head injury (which has serious health consequences). Overall, I think this poster does provide a really basic education concussion, and keeps things simple, which is important for audience comprehension, but needs to provide a little more information in some places to truly be successful.