Consider Quality

Experimenting with Visuals and Gathering Feedback

We have been developing a number of trial visualizations, which would ultimately feed into our interface. There are two main visuals we needed to flesh out. First, we needed a way to quickly convey to the consumer how any purchase ranks on the purchase hierarchy and how this ranking correlates to earning points. After all, getting consumers to understanding quality of purchase is the heart of our project. There are two components to each purchase—if the daily cost is above or below $0.08, and if the purchase is made at a privately owned, local retailer— which we had to consider when designing these graphics. We also wanted to keep open the possibility of expanding our graphics if we were to later add in retailer corporate responsibility and manufacturer corporate responsibility. Through the use of color and icons, we attempted to clarify the two measurements of each purchase and where each point was gained or lost.

Second, we wanted to show the user how his or her personal spending over time ranks on quality of purchase, as well as how it feeds back into the local economy and ranks in daily cost. This would help reinforce to the user that the two measurements used to determine purchase of quality have real effects.

As in our previous work, we felt that it was essential for us to collaborate with others outside of our project to acquire feedback on our trials in visual communication. We spoke with both fellow designers and others who may be potential users. The information that we gathered by sharing our system helped us not only to limit the visual feedback we would give users, but it also helped us refine the graphics.

Ease of use was a primary concern of our evaluators, and they expressed interest in some sort of tutorial to guide them through the system. Based on this feedback, we took steps to simplify the information and emphasize the most important parts.