Subsequent visits to Pharmiweb allowed our supporting data journalist and lead visualizer the first opportunity to review the raw data. The data from three separate trials was separated across multiple spreadsheets, and before ideation and mock-ups could take place. Miriam spent some time reading the results of the drug trials to understand how the lead drug compared to competitor drugs in terms of effectiveness and incidence of adverse events and summarised the main insights for Ben. Miriam and Ben then had a phone call with the lead researcher from GSK, it was decided that data from all three studies would be utilised in the visualisation, with the user being able to switch between them at any point. We would also allow the user to explore data from various stages across each of the trials, and filtering could be applied to allow them to view and compare results from specific demographics.

The next phase involved Ben mocking-up some drafts. These were developed into a series of static drafts that used small samples of real data to provide an impression of how the data actually compared across the different studies. There was much discussion about whether to use dots to represent individual patients or a percentage of the study group. It was decided that as the number of dots on screen could exceed 800 if each represented an individual patient, showing a percentage of users would be easier to visualise and clearer to understand.

A follow-up meeting at GSK House allowed Ben to present a refined version of these designs to the ViiV team, and these were met with an enthusiastic response from everyone present in the meeting, and also the ViiV staff watching via a video link in Canada. The designs at this stage were quite rough and only static but were a great tool for the academics to start to see their data come alive, and this then gave them clarity on the direction this project was moving. There was a lot of discussion, particularly about how to best display adverse events data, that would allow users to see what side effects were reported across the different studies, as this is an area where the ViiV treatment has proven to be superior to its competitors.

Further refinements were made to the design, with regular team meetings to discuss design concepts and the project’s overall progress. Much of this work was carried out at the infogr8 studio in London, but occasional visits to Pharmiweb were still required so that data samples could be applied to the new designs to test if they worked effectively.

A final visit to Bracknell allowed Ben to discuss final design recommendations with key members from Pharmiweb and ViiV, and also to discuss his vision with the development team who would produce the interactive installation.