Enabling city planners to compare transportation scenarios in a rapidly changing city
- Client
- Abu Dhabi Department of Municipalities and Transport
- Partners
- Transpo Group
- Pixonal
- Awards
- Red Dot Design Award (x3)
- Deliverables
- Interactive tool
The challenge
Department of Municipalities and Transportation (D.M.T.) operates and maintains Abu Dhabi’s transportation sector and is responsible for planning and developing new infrastructure projects. D.M.T. had been visualizing transport data manually: a time-consuming task that caused incoherent visualizations and information overload that was too technical and difficult to analyze for different stakeholders.
D.M.T. asked CLEVER°FRANKE to design a tool that allows users to easily explore and visualize complex datasets and predictive models in a consistent and visually attractive way. Together with our partner Pixonal, we created Birdseye: a platform for strategic decision making, tailored to mobility and infrastructure challenges.
Value delivered
The Birdseye platform has been adopted across every department of the government and is helping D.M.T. transform Abu Dhabi into a bigger, more accessible and functioning city.
Background
We first worked on defining D.M.T.'s strategic business goals during a kick-off workshop. We conducted several interviews to understand the challenges that team members and external stakeholders face.
Although they were using a modeling tool, their manual way of handling data created several problems, including inconsistent visuals and information overload. In order to understand what kind of data visualizations were possible, we created a data inventory of the datasets used by D.M.T.
Phases and toolkit items used
Solution
Createmaps
Users can create and edit maps and data visualizations based on all available data about Abu Dhabi’s Transportation and its STEAM (the Strategic Transportation Evaluation and Assessment Model for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi) models. By feeding the data into STEAM, accurate and detailed predictions can be made about the load on Abu Dhabi’s infrastructure. These outcomes can then be turned into visualizations.
Exploredata
By interacting with the map, different layers of data can be accessed. This allows users to drill down into specific elements on the map.
Comparescenarios
Consistent data visualizations make it possible to easily compare different scenarios, either by clicking through or choosing between several comparison modes.
Interfacedesign
Various functionalities come together to form an intuitive interface. At the core of the interface, there is a map that visualizes Abu Dhabi’s transport network. Users can configure maps and select what data to visualize, and they can analyze specific elements on the map.
Birdseye tool has a strong aesthetic that visually unites the variety of maps. The user-friendly and non-technical look allows for highlighting the data and focusing on what matters.
To cater to users with both technical and non-technical backgrounds, we designed the interface with options to visualize key metrics in simple graphs or rich interactive graphs to explore more complex topics.
These can also be exported and used in stakeholder presentations.
Technology
D.M.T. created the DoT data platform to combine different open and proprietary data sources into a single API, complemented with their modeling tool STEAM. Together those feed into the visualization tool where the data can be analyzed and interacted with.
Results
Birdseye is a state-of-the-art visualization and analytics tool for transportation data. It is helping to build insights from transport data in a manner that has never been seen before locally, regionally, and internationally.
Sami Al Hashmi / Division Director Integrated Planning Transport Sector
Providing an all-in-one experience, Birdseye helps D.M.T. employees and stakeholders to easily communicate, plan, and strategize for the future.
The tool is adopted across every department of the government and is helping D.M.T. transform Abu Dhabi into an exceptionally functioning city.
