UNDERWORLDS: BACTERIA ACROSS CITIES

date 2019
position Data Visualization Specialist | Senseable City Lab, MIT

Bacteria Across Cities is a visualization associated with the Underworlds project. A collaboration between several MIT labs including the Sensible City Lab and the Alm Lab, Underworlds proposes sampling sewage water from manholes to learn about human health. The team on this project is extensive, including data visualization specialist Wonyoung So. Check out the project here for its videos, visualizations, and related publications.

Bacteria Across Cities focuses on the bacteria found from samples from four cities. Since the data was scientific by nature and not approachable for lay people (like myself), I decided on a “scrolly-telling” approach (my first and only!) to walk viewers through the data with occasional interactions. This not only required attention to the data display but also the story and the transitions within one display and between displays. The project also required photography, since we decided to blanket the introduction with a background image related to the sample analysis process. I visited the Alm Lab with my DSLR and one of the scientists mimicked the stages of analysis for me to document. Below are a few screenshots from the final webpage and initial sketches. Check out the webpage here.