Visualising data in a meaningful way
LSU is a research and development project tasked with exploring how sensor technology can be used to support and inform city planners in managing infrastructure.
Data visualisation for city planning
LSU (Large Scale UMTS Location based Service) is a FP7 EuroStar, Innovate UK and Red Ninja funded project, tasked with helping to optimise transport planning within urban environments.
As Red Ninja’s senior designer, I worked with the project team and Merseytravel to identify a lack of information around bus passenger destinations, setting our focus on a key bus hub in Liverpool City centre. We also defined migration habits between the city centre and the Baltic Triangle, as another area of interest. This formed the core of the project brief and the starting point for the work on LSU.
Data visualisation dashboard
Sensors were installed at key junction points around the city centre and in the Baltic Triangle. This presented us with hundreds of thousands of data entries that were difficult to make sense of. Working with Jordy van Kuijk, Ben Blackmore and Red Ninja’s data team to understand what information was available and referring back to the agreed brief, I helped to define the core strategy and conceptualised a map to represent the flow of movement from one part of the city to the next. The design aesthetic took heed from the branding work created by Lewis Dohren.
This interactive map allows users to click on pre-set areas to see the popular outbound routes taken by commuters. Allowing Merseytravel to quickly traverse from A>B>C and so on, analysing the migration habits of groups of people over time periods of 24hrs / 1 week / 1 month / 6 months. On top of the more reflective aspects of LSU, a simple alerts system was developed to notify Merseytravel if congestion levels passed safety limits.
LSU Dashboard provides Merseytravel insight into how citizens are using public transport to navigate built up urban environments and guide future infrastructure investment.