Data-Visualization-Portfolio

Part I: Final Project

Topic: 🏃‍♀️ Staying Healthy in the Age of Screens

Outline

High-level Summary ✍️

Even though technology has simplified our lives and has become increasingly embedded into every aspect of our daily routines, spending too much time in front of screens can be detrimental to our physical and mental health.

Reader’s objective 📖

As a reader, I want to understand how I can minimize screen time so that I can focus on improving my health in the long run. I can do this by turning off my phone notifications and setting time limits for social media applications.

Project Structure 🪜

Setup: It’s now much simpler to connect with people worldwide and exchange information and resources because of the immense power of the internet.
Conflict: However, excessive screen time exacerbates mental and physical health and sometimes hurts our productivity.
Resolution: Taking small steps such as setting time limits for social media applications to minimize screen time daily can improve one’s health in the long run.

Story Arc 📜

Sections I’d like to highlight during my presentation:

Setup

Technology exposes us to a lot of data daily.
People spend roughly one-half of their waking hours (44%) staring at a screen.

Conflict

Increases chances of obesity, vision problems, and insomnia.
Social media comparison might hurt your self-esteem.
Reduces productivity.
Prone to developing addictive patterns.

Resolution

Recommendations to minimize screen time and lead a healthy lifestyle like:
- Turning off your phone’s notifications
- Set your display color scale to monochrome during work hours
- Set a time limit for apps that you use the most!

Initial Sketches 🎨

Setup

Sketch #1

People spend roughly one-half of their waking hours (44%) staring at a screen.

Sketch #2

Global mobile phone usage average.

Sketch #3

Most people use Social media apps more than others.
UI and UX designers spend a lot of time improving the user experience to make it more pleasant (or addictive?) since the whole business model is predicated on users remaining actively engaged for extended periods.
The general color scheme and design of the user interface are great touches that improve the feel of using the product.

Conflict

Reduces productivity.

Sketch #4

Notifications are distracting.

Notifications and Usage are related.

Prone to developing addictive patterns.
Curiosity about the issue of phone addiction is on the rise!

Most countries have looked up Phone Addiction on Google!

Resolution

Current Global average mobile usage vs Recommended

Data 📚

Name	Description	Reference
Exploding Topics blog	This blog contains global statistics on screen time. I utilized this blog source for the Setup section to illustrate the time spent by people in front of screens. The global mobile usage average helps to establish that the world is going through a problem that needs to be solved.	Exploding Topics (2022) Alarming Average Screen Time Statistics [online]. Available at: https://explodingtopics.com/blog/screen-time-stats [Accessed 20th September 2022]
Digital Wellbeing data	Data was gathered from my Samsung phone's "Digital Wellbeing" feature. It has information like how often I accessed an app and received notifications from it daily. I also utilized this data for the Conflict section, where I talk about how productivity is impacted. For example, the greater the number of notifications, the more frequently I open the app and the greater my app usage.	Ruchi Bhatia (2022) Digital Wellbeing data [online]. Available at: https://github.com/ruch798/Data-Visualization-Portfolio/tree/main/data/Personal [Accessed 26th September 2022]
Google Trends data	This dataset contains timeseries and geospatial data about search interest in phone addiction. I've included in the Conflict section, where I discuss how more and more people are concerned about their reliance on smartphones.	Google Trends (2022) Phone Addiction [online]. Available at: https://github.com/ruch798/Data-Visualization-Portfolio/tree/main/data/Google%20Trends [Accessed 26th September 2022]
Reid Health blog	This article discusses what constitutes a "healthy" amount of time screen time for adults. I've used this statistic for the Resolution section. I reference a chart from the Setup section that shows how much time people across the world spend on their mobile devices on average, and then compare it to the suggested time to highlight how many days of our lives can be saved by cutting back only an hour a day.	Reid Health (2022) How Much Screen Time is Too Much for Adults? [online]. Available at: https://www.reidhealth.org/blog/screen-time-for-adults#:~:text=Experts%20say%20adults%20should%20limit,spent%20participating%20in%20physical%20activity. [Accessed 26th September 2022]

Method and Medium ⚙️

I will be using the following tools for implementing my project:

Shorthand: for developing my story narrative and delivering it effectively
Tableau and Flourish: for creating data visualizations that are interactive
Canva and Venngage: for creating custom visuals that support my story arc

I intend to include accompanying graphics, such as reference charts, to help the audience understand the charts’ takeaway faster.

Finally, my call to action will include action items that will help to minimize screen time!

Turning off your phone’s notifications
Set your display color scale to monochrome during work hours
Set a time limit for apps that you use the most!

In-class Peer Feedback

What worked? 😁

Displaying charts of my own mobile phone usage data. Added a personal touch!

What didn’t work? 😟

The dual axis Notification-Times opened chart took time to interpret.
No visual colour grouping in the Most used apps chart.
Colors for calendar icons in the Mobile Usage chart seemed redundant. Icons were not legible.

What questions came up? 🤔

Are there research papers published that had a focus group of people for monitoring cell phone usage with and without notifications enabled?
Are certain apps more addictive than others?

What new inspiration arose? ✨

It was interesting to hear that the group wanted me to look into research conducted on this topic. I plan on doing so and including more visuals in my next draft.

Final Re-Design 🖼️

Changes I made 🖌

Changed the Notifications-Times opened chart type to make it more interpretable.

Created a set for Social Media apps in the apps used most chart to make the social media app names stand out.

Increased the size of the calendar icons and changed the color to black to minimize colors used in the chart.