Precedents and Research

I realized I hadn't really looked at many other energy monitoring interfaces and that doing this would help me with how to layout my design in a more appealing way that reflected what I wanted to show, who I wanted to target and didn't look so amateur and boring.

I began looking at websites such as http://visualization.geblogs.com/visualization/kitchen/

I liked the way this website had used its tabs. It has a clearly defined label and you could tell thanks to the arrow which data you were looking at. I want to incorporate this into my design as I think it gives a sleek and modern feel.

I also looked at http://flowingdata.com/2011/09/16/world-population-densities-mapped/

In this website I liked the way that colour and different types of the same colour range were used to emphasize certain things. The blue fade down the bottom also looks very nice and would work well in my design.

I also looked at

http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/rules_for_using_color.pdf

I liked this website because it introduced a different way of viewing colours. For example in the first image it used a fade and 3D to show data. It also contrasted this with just a regular bar graph. The data in the image i've shown was a lot easier to read, it was better to look at and it looked modern. This leads me to the conclusion that abstract ways of presenting data are better than traditional as long as the data makes sense. The second image also showcases how faded/withdrawing the colour out of a hue made them easier or nicer to view. I will take these into account with my colours and their uses in my project.