How Graphic Design Can Be Used to Liberate Weather Data from Its Traditional Structured, Restrictive and Mass Consumed Context, and Participate in Improving Its Communicative Capacity

The discipline of graphic design has an important role to play in developing how information is conveyed and consumed. This paper will focus on how design can be used to liberate weather data from its structured, restrictive and mass consumed context, and ultimately participate in improving its communicative capacity and make it more relevant to today's audiences. I aim to demonstrate how design can allow for richer visual interpretations of banal information. From another perspective, I will also discuss how a better collaboration between designers and engineers can help in making weather data more relevant to audiences as the design process can serve as a catalyst to develop new forms of representation that have the potential to convey weather data in a more relatable fashion. In the context of this paper, weather data is categorized as banal information because it is typically displayed via a neutral visual structure that sacrifices originality and creativity for speed and ease of reading. As a result, the way in which people interpret and perceive weather related information can be compromised. It is important to mention that the content is not the root cause of this perception, but rather, it is the uncreative and un-engaging manner in which it is presented. As explained by Dr. Jeffrey T. Nealon, professor of English and philosophy at Penn State University, the fundamental ordinariness of the weather also translates into everyday life: […] the weather often functions as a privileged figure for banality itself; the lingua franca of everyday speech. The weather constitutes a pervasive discourse, nearly devoid of content, in which we can all safely engage; as such, connecting with others superficially, without running the risk of offence (Nealon, 2013, 109). As such, the research of T. Nealon provides a framework for observing weather content as something that is: • banal, due to excessive visibility; • necessary, as it allows viewers them to make informed decisions within their daily lives; and • socially relevant, as it allows us to connect due to its universal acceptability. Graphic design has the potential to establish an original relationship between the weather content and its visual display and to counteract the perceived banality of weather data by fostering a rich, engaging, and surprising experience. In order to generate a variety of rich visual explorations and methodologies, graphic designers can make use of various sets of specific "creative operations” which could benefit the scientific community, more precisely by improving their capacity to convey data through a more engaging reading experience. John S. Gero, research professor in the Department of Computer Science and the School of Architecture at the University of North Carolina specialized in cognitive studies of computing behavior, and Michael A. Rosenman, researcher at the Key Centre of Design Computing, Department of Architectural and Design Science, University of Sydney, propose four models of creative design (Figure 15) derived from computer modeling: combination, mutation, analogy and first principles (Gero and M L Haher, 1993). From a computer modeling perspective, John S. Gero asserts (Gero, 1994, 9) that these models of creative design give rise to engaging concepts for researchers for three reasons : • they provide a framework in which to explore ideas about design; • they provide a schema to model human designing; and they allow for the development of tools for human designers. Through the evaluation of 5 visual projects focused on weather data representation conducted in the context of my Master of Design at York University, Toronto, Canada, and that made use of the different creative operations proposed by Gero and Rosenman as a way to “promote creative thinking in design” (Cross, 1997, 432), I will discuss how design can be used to change the perception of weather data through the creation of alternative forms of representation. The projects that will be discussed, namely : Wednesday, A Mix Of Sun And Cloud, High 22 (Combination), Weather Yearbook (Analogy), Weather Shaker Mobile Application (Analogy), Distortional Weather Report Poster (Mutation), and Typographic Weather Report Book (Mutation) all used weather data as a starting point for the generation of various, interesting visual solutions, highlighting the incredible richness inherent in the data despite its usual perception as banal. In the context of the 44th conference on broadcast meteorology, I aim to use the above mentioned investigation to demonstrate not only how weather data can be communicated and perceived differently through non-traditional forms of data visualization, but also the importance of orienting the visual representation of such a quantitative content as weather data towards a more qualitative and individualized form. From another perspective, I will also discuss the importance of a better collaboration between designers and engineers, so that the scientific community can benefit from the creative possibilities generated by design process, more specifically one driven by the principles established by Gero and Rosenman. Finally, I will discuss how the scientific community can use graphic design process to better communicate with today's audiences. On this subject, I fully share the stance of Karen Cheng Professor in Visual Communication Design at the University of Washington, who recognizes the vital importance of design in the communication of scientific knowledge and wrote the essay "A Brief Guide to Designing Effective Figures for the Scientific Paper” in collaboration with Marco Rolandi, associate professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of California and Sarah Pérez-Kriz, cognitive psychologist and affiliate assistant professor of psychology at George Mason University. Initially intended as a guideline for making figures and visual representation more effectively—and ultimately drawing the attention of the readers to the content and enhancing comprehension—, I believe that this essay also lays out the foundation to understand the importance of a better collaboration between designers and researchers.