More Weather Tomorrow. Engaging Families with Data through a Personalised Weather Forecast

Abstract

As data literacy skills are increasingly important in today's society, scholars have been exploring strategies to engage people with data, for example through storytelling and familiar media such as video. In this paper, we present the design of a video-based data storytelling application that prompts children and their families to explore and interpret historical weather data through a personalised weather forecast. The application was displayed at a 2-month summer exhibition of a popular television channel. In a controlled comparative study, we investigated how the application triggered reflection, as well as emotional and narrative engagement of families at home and at the exhibition. We combined this approach with an in-the-wild study, in which we observed spontaneous interactions of visitors. Our findings indicate that data engagement is encouraged when family interactions occur, which may be facilitated by external environmental conditions and internal story design. Here, we uncover 5 design recommendations for data video storytellers.