A composite curve number is generated from land use and soil data. The terrain is colored to show the boundaries of the land use and soil types, and the data is visualized in a graphic for easy consumption.

A watershed is delineated and a calculation point is determined.

A watershed is delineated and a calculation point is determined.

Soil data is added to the terrain

Menus appear in a chromeless color palette, with sub-categories in a list of tints and shades in the same hue.

A detailed spec for the object card showing how a curve number is calculated, with easy to read graphs and reassuring summary that the calculation is reliable.

Concept for displaying information to calculate a curve number from a watershed.

How a user would see a calculation results after running a watershed analysis.

Explorations of hiding and showing details about a watershed when hovering over it.

Various views of watershed data in cards, menus and overlays.

 

Guidelines for displaying data, with influence from Dona Wong's excellent Wall Street Guide to Information Graphics

 
Detailed typographic variations on how to create hierarchy for data visualization.

Detailed typographic variations on how to create hierarchy for data visualization.

Land Use color palette for manually defining areas in a model

Soil Group Palette for defining infiltration properties in a model

Soil Group Palette for defining infiltration properties in a model

Soil use color palette for identifying soil infiltration properties

Soil use color palette for identifying soil infiltration properties

Manually add Land Use data to a model

Manually add Land Use data to a model

Import Soil Use data to a model

Import Soil Use data to a model

Define the analysis zone in a model

Define the analysis zone in a model

Import Land Use data to a model

Import Land Use data to a model

Allow the user to view land use data underground as they design their drainage system

A flow for the engineer to select an area of land and identify its properties for drainage design

User research findings summary that highlights how engineers start by importing data into a model, then select areas to define from pre-determined lists. Manual editing and defining one's own options from scratch were less desirable.

Manually add Soil data to a model

Manually add Soil data to a model

A curve number is calculated for the defined area using TAU Dem analysis

Sketches of defining land use and then a seeing a "tail" or "tag" at the edge to bring up details, inspired by the tag on a pair of jeans.

Users expressed a need to keep their models uncluttered and only see details on demand. They also felt more comfortable working with their data in 2D, and wished for a way to easily zoom in and out.

Explorations for various ways to add and view land and soil data to a model and calculate drainage analysis.

Sketches of the object card pattern and how it might display data with the model.

Sketched thumbnails of various layouts for watershed analysis data.