[Case 01]
Utilizing information visualisation to tell a meaningful story
Understanding Mental Wellbeing Through Social Media Interactions
Information Visualisation Studio (DECO3100) - The University of Sydney
[Project Overview]
In this final year studio unit @USyd, we were tasked to utilize HTML, CSS, and Javascript (Script.js) to create interactive web infographics, specifically using data related to social media to tell a meaningful story.
[Aim]
For my information visualization project, I aimed to analyze social media posts and comments to understand trends in mental health indicators and act as a space of support and empathy for people who may be experiencing mental health challenges and seeking reassurance that they are not alone in their struggles.
[My Role]
UX Designer, Researcher, Full stack Dev
[Team]
Solo project
[Timeline]
August 2024- November 2024
[Tools]
HTML, CSS, Javascript, Figma, Excel
[Process and Development]
The visualization adopts an approachable, empathetic tone, using simple language and avoiding technical terms. Illustrations feature soft shapes and a warm color palette, primarily yellow and orange, to convey comfort, positivity, and hope, while ensuring readability (Henderson, 2021; Nygaard, 2017). Warm tones enhance mood and connect with mental health themes. A clean, sans-serif font was chosen for modernity and readability on digital platforms.
[Infographics & Insights]
Ubiquity of Social Media: This section highlights the widespread use of social media worldwide, emphasizing its relevance for analyzing mental health behaviors. A choropleth map was chosen to visualize social media usage across different countries as it is useful in displaying data tied to geography, ultimately providing a clear representation of social medias’ global penetration.
Growing Mental Health Issues: Showcases the rising suicide rates in the US, this section aims to draw a ttention to the ever rising mental health issues. An area chart effectively displays this data as they are useful in showcasing trends over time.
Impact of Social Media on Mental Health: This section aims to raise awareness about the negative effects of social media, supported by statistics from external references for greater impact. An area chart was used to illustrate the growth of negative interactions on social media.
Negativity on Social Media: Utilizing pie charts for various platforms, this section visually compares the ratio of negative to positive posts across social media platforms. Reddit's higher ratio highlights its vulnerability to mental health issues, reinforcing the need for special att ention on the platform. Section aims to show that anonymity on social media is a double edged sword and can also have negative repercussions like cyberbullying, etc.
Prevalence of Mental Health Issues: Depicts a bar chart of popular mental health subreddits, showcasing the prevalence of these issues. This aims to create a sense of solidarity, empathy and a sense of urgency among readers to take action and try to get help.
Understanding Anxiety: Focusing in on anxiety, this section provides insights into common symptoms of anxiety through a word cloud from the anxiety subreddit. A horizontal bar chart showing a sentiment analysis of popular mental health subreddits reinforces anxiety's high negative sentiment, unlike other mental health issues.
Root Causes of Mental Health Issues: Aims to educate users on mental health, this section employs a grouped bar chart to illustrate the correlation between perceived root causes and mental health issues. A grouped bar chart was used here as this chart type allows for the comparison of multiple categories (root causes) within each mental health issue, providing a clear visual representation of how different factors contribute to various conditions.
Call to Action: Featuring a CTA butt on directing users to HealthDirect, along with supporting empathetic text. This section encourages users to take action to get bett er.
[User-Testing]
[Outcome]
Improved legibility and emphasised certain sections of text for increased engagement.
Adjusted the positive trace to view only, so that users are able to focus on the negative interactions of social media instead of it being eclipsed by trends of positive posts.
Changed the color pallete of bar chart to avoid confusion amongst users.
[Key Learnings]