The Good Example
The example features life expectancy across the US, showing how it ranges among different states. This example is good since it uses an effective color scheme with contrasting colors to understand which states perform better than others. The qualitative color scheme in the example uses colors that “look clearly distinct from one another”, while no one color “stands out relative to the others” (Hopkins, 2014). It is essential since it allows us to perceive the states as different and at the same time, related; the viewers understand how they can be combined into larger groups and how the distinction is made. A sequential scale based on one hue allows viewers to mentally refer the states into one category while contrasting scales highlight the distinction between different groups. Another important feature is that “baseline colors do not compete for attention,” which makes the picture easy to perceive and understand (Hopkins, 2014). By clicking on a state, it is possible to see the exact life span in this area so that the data are easy to grasp and remember. Moreover, the example uses the position scale combined with a table, which reinforces the visual perception.
The Bad Example
The bad example features the States’ COVID-19 dashboard and cannot be called effective. First of all, it lacks a Y-axis, which is an essential element of visual presentation. Secondly, there is no reference point for COVID cases, such as a position scale, which would clearly indicate which color refers to what. The numbers are not clearly seen and the viewers may get confused as to the real number of cases. Thirdly, the picture uses two different sets of data – one represents the number of cases across the country, while the other features the number of cases in Nevajo alone. As there are no titles, the viewers may get confused as to the meaning of the pictures. Moreover, it may seem that the number of cases in Nevajo equals that across the whole state. The color scheme used is ineffective since only one hue is used and there is no contrast. Looking at the map, the viewers cannot mentally subdivide the states into categories according to the number of COVID cases, which significantly hampers understanding.
The Impacts to the Organization
The healthcare system is a complex whole where participants are responsible for their patients’ lives and health, so it is essential that the material is presented in such a way as to be understandable and visual. Healthcare visualization plays a central role in healthcare settings as it “provides insights in an easily understandable format” (Wilke, 2019, para 5). Indeed, without visualization, it is difficult for healthcare workers to grasp data that refer to the categories of patients, the prevalence of these or those illnesses and the medicines it is necessary to prescribe. If the leadership makes decisions based on poor or misrepresented data, which may happen due to poor visualizations, in healthcare settings, such errors may result in significant damage to a patient’s health. Moreover, the whole development strategy of an organization may be compromised if the leadership makes decisions based on the wrong calculations or has no real idea of the effectiveness of different procedures or medicines. Visualizations help to achieve much-needed clarity, which is why it remains one of the key methods of presenting information in healthcare settings.
References
Hopkins, D. (2014) How healthcare visualizations can improve organizational buy-in. HealthCatalyst.
Wilke, C. O. (2019). Fundamentals of data visualization: a primer on making informative and compelling figures. O’Reilly Media.