Measures of Information Visualizations in Design Studio Education: Designing Climate Change Visualizations

The climate crisis and sustainability are priority issues that are increasingly integrated into all fields of study in universities. For the field of communication design, there is a challenge to deliver effective designs on the climate crisis due to the complexity of the issue and the large volume of scientific data involved. To overcome this challenge, information visualizations are designed to help communicate complex data. Information visualizations, being data-driven, necessitate specific design principles in addition to fundamental graphic design skills. This study investigates the communication of the climate crisis through information visualizations, with the aim of determining the prominent measures and relevant design language that can be incorporated into design studio education. We conducted three focus groups with academics teaching communication design studios and professionals who have work experience in information visualization design and experts who are doing projects on sustainability and the climate crisis. The findings highlight the importance of actionability, enlightening, evoking curiosity, evoking emotions, localization, personification and positivity in designing effective climate change visualizations. This study contributes to the fields of information visualization and communication design by offering measures to enhance climate change visualizations and providing insights for teaching these principles in communication and graphic design studios.