Web of Vital Signs

This is an info graphic that I’ve been playing around with for the past few weeks. When I first started this job, I had a difficult time imagining where each vital sign was being monitored? Which parks had the most vital signs? Which ones had the least? What sort of patterns of partnerships existed?

This graphic is eventually what I’ve come up with to answer those questions. It may not be the clearest explanation, but it sure looks cool, right? I know, aesthetics for aesthetics’ sake is worthless in good design; I’d love any suggestions on how to make this graphic more useful.

In the meantime, let me walk you through it (though, admittedly, a good graphic shouldn’t have to be explained like this). Click on each image for a larger detail.



-Each national park unit is represented by its 4-letter acronym.
-The arrangement of the parks matches their geographic locations on a map.
-If scientists monitor a vital sign at a particular park, a circle is placed around the park.
-You may notice that as the circles radiate outwards, the opacity changes (that is, it fades as it spreads out).
-This is because the more parks that monitor a vital sign, the darker the line (ie “Climate” is monitored at all 7 parks, “Intertidal” at just 2)
-This fading effect should be apparent in the 9 boxes to the right.
-In addition to a circle around the park, there are lines that connect the parks to each other. This shows the relationships to other parks that share the same vital sign.
Thus, we can conclude that Mount Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades share the most vital signs out of the network.

In any case, I’ll be reworking this graphic throughout the season, but I wanted to put it out there to get discussions started.