
Data Visualisation
Exhibition Screens
The vision of the project was to leverage modern technology to showcase how the measures implemented by SSE are helping fish populations thrive and migrate sustainably.
The aim was to deliver reliable and accurate data about local fish populations and their migration patterns to both the business and key external stakeholders.
Background
The Ask
Every year thousands of visitors visit the Pitlochry hydroelectric station in Scotland. Part of SSE Renewables, Pitlochry makes up part of the Tummel Valley’s hydro scheme of nine power stations and four major dams in the north of Scotland. The Pitlochry ‘fish ladder’ was added to help salmon swim upstream to their breeding grounds. Pitlochry had a viewing chamber where visitors could see through the water of the fish ladder and try to catch a glimpse of a salmon making its journey.
Unfortunately, Pitlochry was not immune to the spread of Covid, and as such the pressures of health and safety, coupled with social distancing, meant that the viewing chamber grew increasingly difficult to remain open to visitors. Pitlochry knew that to protect its visitors it would need to close the viewing chamber and devise an alternative.
Approach
Members from the Avanade Data & AI team met with SSE and together came up with the ingenious solution to install an underwater camera in the fish ladder at Pitlochry. Using AI tracking technology, they were able to track the salmon as they moved upstream. SSE knew that they couldn’t just put a camera underwater and tell their visitors a website address. They knew that they would have to attempt to replace the magic of the viewing chamber with another rich and immersive experience. It was decided a viewing platform would be created using an innovative totem design. Four Totems would be positioned with benches, creating a place for visitors to take in the beautiful view of Pitlochry and to learn more about salmon migration. But what information would be displayed?
Responsibilities
Within two of the totems were two screens, Pitlochry wanted to display the total salmon counted and the last 10 fish caught on camera playing on a loop. Then I used design thinking methods, and a human-centred approach to understand the users and their needs before moving into solutioning.
This started with discovery – focusing on learning about the visitors and the context of the design problem through user research. I then reframed the challenge at hand through high-contact, immersive design thinking workshops. Collaboratively, ideating, co-designing and blueprinting the future customer experience and portal vision. I then worked hand in hand with developers to create a final product that was not only usable and beautiful but showcased the technological solution.

The Process
I used tried and tested design thinking methods, and a human-centered approach to seeking and solving the problems. Getting insight was critical, and I followed a standard method of design and test.
Workshop and
Ideation
I ran multiple workshops with the client to understand the business and user needs. These included co-design session with key-stakeholders to create a range of ideas not only to solve our two requirements, but also looking at the visitor experience holistically.
Wireframes and
Testing
Wireframes were then created in order to look at different ways to display the data we had about the Salmon count. This was tested in real life situations to validate design decisions. This included accessibility testing, to ensure visitors could understand and interpret the information shown,
Visual Design
Once the wireframes were complete visual design could then begin. The designs not only had to be accessible to all but also stay true to the Pitlochry Dam Visitor Centre branding. Throughout the visual design process more user testing conducted.
Developement
I then worked hand in hand with developers to create a final product that was not only usable and beautiful but showcased our technological solution.
Data Visualisation
Then the data being collected by the AI tracking technology was analysed, and I began to look at different ways to visualise the data. Throughout the wireframe and ideation process user testing was conducted to validate the approach.
Wireframes: Different graph types were experimented with and tested with users. From user testing a range of different data visualisations we quickly found the simple concepts worked best, in order for the data being shown to remain accessible and legible for all users.
Ideation: Incorporating colour whilst testing our different visualisation routes was key to testing legibility in terms of colour contrast. The final product was to be displayed on a large 32inch colour monitor outside, so aspects such as how far away users would be seated all needed to be kept mind.




Visual Design
Large Scale Video and Key Data: During user testing participants favoured seeing one video at a time on screen. The design also included a visual indictor along the right-hand side to let users know how many further videos remain in the sequence.
The two most important pieces of data were pulled out to sit on the video screen so they were not missed on the rotating data displays.

Final Output
The final design used a set of four rotating screens displaying different data about the salmon count. These used different graphic devices to visually show the differences in the data being displayed.
One of the key metrics which was highlighted early on in discovery workshops was users wanting to see the yearly salmon count, and to be able to see if there was any different to the previous year. This data has been pulled out as a stand-alone screen, and the total yearly salmon count also featured on the last 10 video clip screen.




Thank you for your interest in my work!