Understanding and Improving Data Visualization Literacy: Compiling Front-end Evaluation and Partial Summative Evaluation Data

Sense-making with data through the process of visualization—recognizing and constructing meaning with these data—has been of interest to learning researchers for many years. Results of a variety of data visualization projects in museums and science centers suggest that visitors have a rudimentary understanding of and ability to interpret the data that appear in even simple data visualizations. This project supports the need for data visualization experiences to be appealing, accommodate short and long-term exploration, and address a range of visitors’ prior knowledge. Front-end evaluation occurred during the spring and early summer of 2019 at IU and at COSI. On the basis of results of this evaluation, SMM and IU made software and hardware changes to the exhibit components and shipped them to COSI in January 2020. After doing some testing of the final exhibit prototype, summative evaluation commenced in late February 2020 and continued through early March 2020 until the pandemic shut-down.This report compiles results of the front-end evaluation and what could be done with the summative evaluation prior to the pandemic.