Life Satisfaction
Life Satisfaction assesses how people judge their lives as a whole. It is the way they show their emotions, feelings (moods) and their ideas about their futures. Life Satisfaction is measured on a scale of 0 - 10, called the Cantril Ladder, with 10 being the highest level of satisfaction.
This visualisation shows the life satisfaction levels of 20 countries from 2016 - 2020, positioned according to their respective GDPs along the vertical axis.
Details
Design Process
The design for this visualisation underwent multiple iterations. Initially, I wanted the design to have a natural touch to it in order to depict the softness usually imagined with the idea of life. Therefore, I tried to produce organic - plant-based - shapes.
Left: Brainstorming Notes; Right: Initial Design
Left: First Iteration; Right: Second Iteration
However, when drawn on Illustrator, the visualisations were not really working out. So, they were further modified. For the next set, I wanted to use circles which, in many cultures, denote life. These visualisations were inspired by the idea of helium balloons held down by weights.
Left: Third Iteration; Right: Fourth Iteration
Left: Fifth Iteration; Right: Sixth Iteration
The final visualisation, although taking elements from multiple iterations, is an improved version of the sixth one. But, I omitted the lines as they were adding too much noise and were making the visualisation unnecessarily confusing. With the lines gone, countries' names and continent symbols could be placed on the graph, next to the main circles.
Initially, the continents were randomly assigned to symbols. However, while designing I realised they could be named according to the direction of the continents on the map and the position of the circle in relation to the lines.
As for the colours, since blue is a calming colour, it is used for the main information. Orange, being blue's complementary colour, is used as an accent for other contexual information.
Moodboard
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments. Thank you!
