Do you see what I mean? An Analysis of the visual representation of energy data

Our society is built upon energy – we need energy for its functioning and development.
However, given our current dependence on non-renewable energy sources, a more sustainable
use needs to be achieved. A new tool of science and sustainability communication is
visualization to increase public awareness and understanding of energy issues.
The aim of the study was to examine how energy data can be visually communicated.
Efficiency and effectiveness of three visual representations of energy data as well as how they
are perceived by an audience were tested. The focus was not on the understanding of the
content, but rather the perception of visualization of energy data. The three assessed
representations were colour combined with height, grey and height as well as a flat-colourmap
which were tested with two task varying in their complexity.
A controlled experiment and interviews have been conducted providing the possibility of
triangulation of a quantitative and qualitative method, to gain deeper insight. Before the
actual study, open-access energy data has been assessed, selected and prepared for the
visualization. The visualization has been created in ArcGIS and presented in the Uniview
Visualization Software.
The results show, that there is no significant difference between the visual representations.
Yet, the interviewees reflect that a combination of colour and height was the easiest. Visual
representations are in general perceived as a good way to communicate energy data, for
instance providing the “big picture” and global relations.