ABSTRACT

Corona dashboards are interactive geospatial information systems used by billions of users to help them understand the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. I use a representational lens to explore how these systems can be made more useful. With this lens, the usefulness of these systems to convey information about the pandemic fundamentally depends on whether these systems are implemented as representation or state-tracking systems. I suggest that corona dashboards presently focus disproportionally on representing socially constructed properties (infection rates, deaths, levels of vaccination) of various things such as people, regions, or countries. They would become more useful if they additionally focused on tracking events (such as policy implementations) and changes in states (such as capacities of lockdown wards, usage of face masks). By applying a methodology for design science research involving design archaeology, I analyse the in situ implementation of Germany’s RKI COVID-19-Dashboard, develop new design principles to extend the state-tracking abilities of corona dashboards, and explore the importance, actability, and effectiveness of these design principles through an empirical case study. The contributions this paper makes are new and validated design principles for new feature implementations that can help making corona dashboards more effective and useful.

摘要

Corona 仪表板是数十亿用户使用的交互式地理空间信息系统，可帮助他们了解 COVID-19 大流行的演变。我使用代表性镜头来探索如何使这些系统更有用。从这个角度来看，这些系统在传达有关大流行的信息方面的有用性从根本上取决于这些系统是作为表示系统还是状态跟踪系统来实现的。我建议电晕仪表板目前不成比例地侧重于代表各种事物（例如人、地区或国家）的社会构建属性（感染率、死亡率、疫苗接种水平）。如果它们另外专注于跟踪事件（例如政策实施）和状态变化（例如锁定病房的容量、口罩的使用），它们将变得更加有用。通过应用涉及设计考古学的设计科学研究方法，我分析了德国 RKI COVID-19-Dashboard 的原位实施，开发新的设计原则以扩展电晕仪表板的状态跟踪能力，并探索重要性、可操作性和通过实证案例研究这些设计原则的有效性。本文所做的贡献是新功能实现的新的和经过验证的设计原则，可以帮助使电晕仪表板更有效和有用。通过实证案例研究这些设计原则的有效性和有效性。本文所做的贡献是新功能实现的新的和经过验证的设计原则，可以帮助使电晕仪表板更有效和有用。通过实证案例研究这些设计原则的有效性和有效性。本文所做的贡献是新功能实现的新的和经过验证的设计原则，可以帮助使电晕仪表板更有效和有用。