Visualising research papers
Visualising risk factors covered by Rheumatoid Arthritis research studies
The project
Festoon Studios worked with CX Pharma Consulting Ltd to help put together a visualisation that gave a visual overview of what was included within hundreds of research papers. The project was to be used by one of the worlds major pharma clients.
The document consists of just two main page templates: the sequences filters and the endnote references with corresponding risk factor combinations. There was also a brief infographic section to summarise the findings.
The objective
The objective of the project was to explore equity and disparities across healthcare systems, focusing on the equitable access to medicines for patients with rheumatological conditions such as Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA), and Spondyloarthritis (SpA). This initiative involved a thorough review of published evidence on health and healthcare disparities, leveraging sources like PubMed and relevant congress materials to build a comprehensive evidence base.
The literature review was designed to uncover critical themes regarding diagnosis, access to specialised healthcare services, treatments, remote health services, disease activity, clinical outcomes, patient-reported outcomes, and treatment patterns. The aim was to identify evidence gaps and opportunities for data generation, leading to the creation of materials for both internal and external stakeholders, including informational graphics and presentations. The research covered global evidence, with a specific emphasis on data from the United States, Europe, and emerging markets, to inform future initiatives and strategies aimed at enhancing healthcare access and mitigating disparities.
Our task involved creating an interactive PDF to enable the researchers to explore their discoveries on risk factors addressed in research papers concerning arthritis medication. This allowed users to grasp the interplay of risk factors across various studies, along with their additional characteristics.
Our solution
An interactive PDF displaying research data with colored blocks for risk factor combinations.
The Interactive PDF showcasing combinations of risk factors through the use of colored blocks. Each column symbolises a research paper, with the colored blocks denoting different combinations of risk factors. For ease of identification, especially when filters are in use, every research paper is assigned an index number and an icon to distinguish its type. The presence of a dependent variable is marked by ticks, while ‘Region’ and ‘Disease Indication’ sections include text entries due to the wide variety of unique values present in the dataset.
Linking references
Combining unique reference numbers, sequence and risk factor color coding.
This references section assigns identifying numbers to each research paper, enabling users to consult the reference details if they wish to investigate the source of a particular sequence.
The colored blocks (each block representing a risk factor type) display a unique combination of risk factors associated with each paper. These two visual devices make cross referencing the references and their sequences smooth and visually pleasing.
Creative encoding
Combining abbreviated encoding, unique reference numbers, risk factor color coding.
Risk factor combinations
We’ve abbreviated the risk factors in the risk factor key, by using shorthand encoding and color to indicate each risk factor.
As we had three categories of risk factors, we used four different color schemes to help visually differentiate the type of risk factors are featured within the sequences. This helps visually demonstrate that there is a lot of one type of risk factor within a paper listing.
The key
We’ve abbreviated the risk factors in the risk factor key, by using shorthand encoding and color to indicate each risk factor.
As we had three categories of risk factors, we used four different color schemes to help visually differentiate the type of risk factors are featured within the sequences. This helps visually demonstrate that there is a lot of one type of risk factor within a paper listing.
Interactive elements
The document has been designed to allow the user to navigate filters through the sub menu.
Risk factor encoding
Once we had integrated the sequence color coding into our spreadsheet our visualisation started to take shape.
A. These columns in the original data represented the risk factors and their associated categories
To remove the need for the column names and the titles, and to allow the reader to spot patterns, we decided to assign each risk factor a 2-3 ‘character code’, and a unique color.
B. We used a different monochromatic color pallet. This way it was easy to identify the category of risk factor within its colored sequence.
C. We then combined the color encoding with the letter encoding to give us a visual language in which to represent each risk factors sequence. By doing this process through excel we were able to prototype the idea in a low fidelity format.