Since the completion of Part II of this assignment, I made a number of changes to my story. First, I found one consistent blue color (#00a7cd) that I incorporated into all my visualizations, as well as into text that I wanted to stand out. Using this consistent color helped to unify my story. I also like that the blue ties back into the blue blood of the horseshoe crab. I also added a picture of a red knot and added captions to my images, both of which were suggestions brought up during my user research. In general, I added more images (all publicly accessible under creative commons licenses) to make my story more engaging. I also created a map that showed the red knots’ migration path, which was a suggestion offered by a classmate during our in-class feedback session.
In terms of my visualizations, I added an additional visualization showing the number of horseshoe crabs harvested each year, which was suggested to me by a classmate. I also recentered the image showing the horseshoe crabs’ relationship to other species so that all the arrows were of equal distance since that was called out during my user research. I furthermore limited the number of species that I showed in image which was a recommendation made by a classmate. To compensate for the reduced number of species shown in the image, I added a few sentences about how the actual number of species horseshoe crabs impact is greater than what it shown in the image.
In terms of my writing, I added an additional paragraph about the number of eggs horseshoe crabs lay in response to a question I got from a classmate. I also found an article with more information about rFC, the alternative endotoxin test. I linked to the article in my Shorthand page to address the questions I received in my interviews where my users wanted more information on the alternative test. I also used more Shorthand functions, such as the button and the call-out quote, to make my page more interesting.
Overall, I identified my audience to be “nature-lovers” ”, i.e. people who care about species other than humans. I thought this was my audience because I felt like in a world where people can self-select what news and articles they read, it is unlikely that someone who has no interest in nature would click to read an article called “Horseshoe crabs must be protected.” Something that surprised me in my user research was the interest my article had for someone in the medical field. One of my interviewees was a pharmacist. I selected her as an interviewee because I know she loves animals and hiking. However, when I asked her what stood out to her from my story, she was more interested in the medical aspects of horseshoe crab blood being used for endotoxin tests than she was in the parts about horseshoe crabs and their ecosystems. It made me realize that I could probably expand my audience to include people interested in biomedical sciences.
All in all, I realized how valuable it is to get feedback from potential users. Through my user research and in-class feedback I was given many suggestions on how to make my story clearer, such as adding captions and sticking with a consistent color. I also had my attention drawn to the holes in my story that people had more questions about, like how many horseshoe crabs are harvested each year? And how many eggs do horseshoe crabs lay? I was able to edit my work to fill in these gaps and provide a more comprehensive story. I also learned of an entirely new user demographic that I had not previously considered: people interested in the biomedical field. In the end, the feedback was instrumental in enhancing my story to its final version.
Please use this link to view my Final Project: Final Project
Please use this link to see Part I of my project: Final Project Part I
Please use this link to see Part II of my project: Final Project Part II
Please use this link to go back to my portfolio: Rachel Bukowitz Portfolio