HCC: Medium: Designing Visualizations to Support Public Identification of Biodiversity

公民科学促进公众参与真正的科学，以发现新知识和解决问题。 数以百万计的美国人参与了一个或多个公民科学项目，其中许多项目以国家的自然现象为中心，包括确定陆地和海洋生态系统的生物多样性。 该项目扩大了海岸观测和海鸟调查小组（COASST）方案的数据收集能力，该方案是一个公民科学项目，已开展了20多年，旨在培训和支持公众收集观测数据。通过与项目领导人和公民科学家合作，开发对非技术公众有用的生物多样性识别工具。 通过该项目创建的可视化工具将支持志愿者实现高度的数据准确性，并支持对生物多样性进行更深入的情感和分析参与。 这项工作将产生一个经过测试和完善的互动原型，用于识别海滩上的海洋哺乳动物，并更好地了解人们如何使用这些视觉材料。本项目旨在共同创建严格的生物多样性鉴定材料，供COASST计划使用。 新的生物多样性识别材料将利用数据可视化和其他形式的视觉信息来支持（1）非技术公众收集的科学数据的准确性，（2）在评估当地生态系统健康的科学和当地方法之间架起桥梁，（3）在自然世界中伴随发现的社会和情感意义构建。这些材料将通过一个称为接地可视化设计（GVD）的三阶段过程开发。 第一阶段包括一个背景研究，以了解COASST参与者使用当前识别材料的方式，并探索与新的生物多样性种群（海洋哺乳动物）相关的基线值、心理模型和期望。 第二阶段的中心是共同设计新的海洋哺乳动物识别元素，这些元素将被纳入一本全面的数据驱动的指南。 在第三阶段，COASST参与者将“选择”参与一项拨款研究，允许研究人员评估材料在多大程度上支持公民科学家的严格鉴定，并与他们的生活经历相关。 所有阶段都将通过参与者观察，访谈，焦点小组和设计研讨会的组合来完成，并由平面设计师对紧急设计概念进行细化。 这些成果将共同推动COASST项目的发展，以及如何设计公民科学项目的知识，并将GVD方法扩展到新类型的可视化材料和领域。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Citizen science promotes engagement by the public in authentic science, for the purposes of discovering new knowledge and for problem solving. Millions of Americans are engaged in one or more citizen science projects, many of which center on the nation's natural phenomena, including the identification of biodiversity across land and sea ecosystems. This project expands the data collection abilities of the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) program, a citizen science project that has worked for over 20 years to train and support members of the public in collecting observational data. By working with both project leaders and citizen scientists to develop biodiversity identification tools that are useful to non-technical members of the public. The visual tools created through this project will support volunteers in both achieving a high degree of data accuracy and supporting deeper emotional and analytic engagement with biodiversity. This work will produce a tested and refined interactive prototype for identifying beach-cast marine mammals, and a greater understanding of how people use these visual materials. Results can then be applied to other biodiversity identification resources.This project aims to co-create rigorous biodiversity identification materials to be used by the COASST program. Novel biodiversity identification materials will leverage data visualizations and other forms of visual information to support (1) the accuracy of scientific data collected by the nontechnical public, (2) bridge scientific and local ways of assessing the health of local ecosystems, and (3) scaffold the social and emotional sense-making that can accompany discovery within the natural world. These materials will be developed through a three-phase process known as grounded visualization design (GVD). Phase 1 consists of a context study to learn about the ways COASST participants use current identification materials and to probe baseline values, mental models, and expectations associated with a new biodiversity population: marine mammals. Phase 2 centers on co-design of novel marine mammal identification elements to be included in a comprehensive, data-driven guidebook. In Phase 3, COASST participants will "opt in" to an appropriation study allowing researchers to assess the degree to which materials support rigorous identification by citizen scientists and relate to their lived experiences. All phases will be accomplished through a mix of participant observation, interviews, focus groups, and design workshops, interspersed with refinement of emergent design concepts by a graphic designer. Together the results will advance both the COASST project in particular and knowledge of how to design citizen science projects in general, as well as extending the GVD method to new types of visualization materials and domains.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.