NYTimes Covid Vaccination Visualization

The infographic depicts three illustrations with the use of a world map to display covid vaccination rates
across the globe: the first dose, the full dose, and the booster dose. The advantage of using a map as a
visualization is, that it follows Gestalt’s Law of Closure, especially for countries that have multiple
disconnected region (e.g., USA vs Alaska). This illustration has three interactive features: buttons on top
of the map to switch between different illustrations (1), the “double clicking to zoom into the map”
feature and hovering one’s cursor on countries to view/compare vaccination data between countries.

From the map, the user would first notice how some countries are coloured lighter while others darker.

According to Cleveland and McGill’s elementary graphical perception, the use of density difference is the
least accurate way for showcasing data. In this instance, it makes it difficult to determine the absolute
value of the vaccination rate. The user can only estimate how a country is doing relatively to others.

The discoverability of these features are

Even though the zoom feature is not obvious, there is an obvious signifier that tells the user this feature.
Additionally, a user would find it easier to pan into smaller countries. According to Fitts’s Law, the
‘zoom’ feature compliments the user’s goal in finding vaccination data for smaller countries. Without
this feature, the user will take a while to locate the country.

vs

While the illustration fulfils many of Tufte’s Principles, there are still some flaws in this graphic.
Regarding the buttons’ colour choices, they are not contrasting, as white and grey are too similar in
colour. Therefore, it would be difficult for an average user to distinguish. However, it is also noted that
the differences in colour starkness varies from device to device.
Furthermore, the colour used on the map for the first two buttons are completely identical, which
makes it difficult to differentiate between both graphs. There would be additional time taken for the
user to validate which map they were looking at by referring to the button.

Just below the buttons, there is a legend to inform the user on how to interpret the graphic. One can
argue that the use of legend is unnecessary as the graph should be ‘intuitive’ to read: a user would
naturally connect the darker region with a higher vaccination rate and vice versa.

Furthermore, the graphic is only bivariate, as the variables are only the countries and the different
dosages.

Overall,
Financial Times Covid Vaccination Visualization
This illustration depicts a line graph that shows the vaccination rate per country over the span of a year.
In general, the discoverability is well designed, however it is impossible for the user to be aware of the
second feature, unless the user hovers over the top right corner.

vs

This visualization is interactive, as the user can hover over the graph to see the value of a specific point,
change the number of coloured and uncoloured graphs on the plot. For the second feature, the number
of line graphs can be varied by adding more countries to the box above the graph. However, a physical
constraint is present, as no more than seven graphs can be shown, possibly to avoid cluttering the
graph. For the third feature, the user, has the option to ‘show unselected locations’ on the graph. The
use of signifiers here are necessary, as the user would not know how many graphs one can add into the
visualization.

Tufte’s Principles are mostly seen applied in this graph. A legend was not required, as the labels are
clearly used on the graph. Besides, the data shown is multivariate, with the number of countries, the
timeline, and the dosage as the variables. While the chosen colours to represent different countries are
all distinct, certain colours can be confused with each other (e.g. blue vs teal and dark red vs brown).
This may be challenging for colour-deficient people to distinguish between the graphs without
repeatedly checking the country labels.

The visualization also makes use of Gestalt’s Laws. The country labels and their respective graphs share
the same colour and are close in distance. These features adhere to both Gestalt’s Laws of Similarity and
Proximity. The use of proximity between the country labels and their respective graphs also makes a
legend unnecessary. Furthermore, the use of a line graph fulfils Gestalt’s Law of Continuity, as it allows
the user to easily see the progress of vaccination rates.

At first glance, the user only sees a line graph, and therefore assumes that this visualization is not the
most accurate way of representing data. However, when the cursor is moved to a point on any graph, a
pop-up message with the specific coordinates appears. The accuracy of this graph then increases.
According to Cleveland and McGill’s Elementary Graphical Perception, indicating the position of the
points is the most accurate way to represent data.

When a user hovers over a graph, a small dot appears, representing the position on the graph and a pop
up with the doses appear. According to Fitts’s Law, however, the movement time would be long due to
the dot’s small area.

Overall, the graph