Elif Akmanlar
First things first
Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) was carrying a project to launch a new platform with all the information that they collect. I was hired as a UX/UI designer for 8 months to support stakeholders and two developers who were finalising the project. I conducted user research, visited a conference, sketched various interaction flows, designed the user interface.
UCDP
Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) collects information about various aspects of armed violence since 1946. The information is mainly used by researchers who conduct theoretically and empirically based analyses of armed conflict: its causes, escalation, spread, prevention and resolution.
https://www.pcr.uu.se/research/ucdp/
Pain point: Too much information
Uppsala Peace and Conflict Department has been storing large amount of conflict information that was collected by a big team over a long period of time. It was published partially on several different platforms. The department was funded to make the information fully available to the researchers. The challenge was then to share it in a way that easy users for users to find what they are looking for.
Understanding users through scenarios
I conducted contextual inquiries and watched users while they were carrying their research activities. I listed scenarios that I encountered during my observations and recognised patterns that led me to understand the user needs in relation to design.
- Number of battle related deaths between dyads CPH-MLF and GPH-NPA in Philippines in comparison
- Looking for the information about a specific conflict between Forces of Jing Caludtiag - Forces of Randy Karon in Philippines to correct a paper of a student
- Looking for information why there is a significant amount of deaths in 1993 in Mali
- Looking for the actors active in 2013 in Sudan
- Looking for the information about the number of conflicts in Sudan in 2014 in comparison to past years
- Which regions are having conflict in between 1996 and 2012 in South part of Sudan
6/6 of scenarios, researcher is interested in a country
4/6 of scenarios, researcher is interested in a specific year
2/6 of scenarios, researcher is interested in dyads (dyad is a term used for describing the conflict between two violent groups)
User starts with the country
As it seen amongst the user scenarios, all of them (6/6) required researchers to search for an information regarding a country. Therefore countries are the entry point for more information in depth and they are shown on an interactive map. Users can click onto them to access more details.
Interactive encyclopaedia page
Users can interact with the page by changing the year selection, which is the second most important criteria for filtering. The number of death on the map, list of actors and the charts update accordingly. And the relevant data is ready to download according to the country and year selection.
