Research Info

Research Project:

Analyzing people's understanding of uncertainty in everyday data and the effect of using Expectation Visualization

Research Goals:

Assist Professor Jessica Hullman and her Ph.D. student Yeaseul Kim in their project, Expectation Visualization. This project involves having people predict variation in data by drawing what they think would be the sample distribution for an experiment, and aims to measure the effects of this on their perception and understanding of probability and uncertainty in data that they read through everyday sources like newspapers. I am currently helping in the development of the interface for the experiment, and will be a part of piloting the experiment as well.

Through this project, I will gain a comprehensive understanding of what goes into designing a successful user-centered interface. This will give me a chance to implement and add to my existing skill set in UX designing. The statistics-heavy side of this project will add a new field to my knowledge. I will also get a first hand experience of the world of scientific studies and experiments. Another concrete end goal for me thus far is to master the programming language Javascript, specifically its library d3.js, which specializes in binding data to a web interface. Eventually, I also plan on using this experience to build a more sophisticated version of this website before my final submission.