We've put together ten crucial tips to improve the user experience of your heatmaps. These tips will ensure your heatmap is practical and user-friendly. Let's dive in.
Choosing the right color gradient is not just a design choice, it's a powerful tool for quickly communicating complex information about capacity and congestion. By using cooler colors like blue to indicate ample capacity and hotter colors like red to signify congestion, you're creating an intuitive understanding for your users, empowering them with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions.
For example, areas in blue suggest minimal congestion, while red highlights zones with zero capacity. Transparent color transitions are also a good idea for more subtle changes, ensuring the map doesn't overwhelm the viewer with sharp contrasts.
Additionally, aligning your heatmap's colors with your brand enhances the overall visual consistency while retaining clarity on capacity bottlenecks. The right gradient brings out critical details without sacrificing your company's identity.
See how color coding can effectively represent grid stress levels in this sample heatmap.
Even with a legend, users might need help interpreting the heatmap; it's important to consider users with color blindness. That's where data tips—appearing as users hover over areas—become invaluable. Displaying specific capacity data, along with highlights on the legend bar, makes it easier for users to engage with the map.
It is also crucial to offer a simple switch between kV levels. This lets users view capacity by voltage level, ensuring they get the most relevant information for their projects.
The following video shows how interactive features make the map easier to navigate and interpret.
The growing wait times for interconnections demand a heatmap that provides a forward-looking view of capacity. By integrating multi-year transfer studies, users can visualize grid conditions at their projected interconnection date.
"As of 2024, the median interconnection wait time in the U.S. has surged to around 5 years, compared to under 2 years in the early 2000s."
Providing the option to select different scenarios—such as winter or summer—ensures that users get a flexible and accurate picture of grid conditions over time. This feature helps planners make well-informed decisions.
Large-scale data from transfer analysis studies, like the nine years of load data that includes millions of records, can overwhelm systems. Utilities must design systems to handle this data seamlessly, allowing real-time updates when grid conditions or studies change.
Today's users expect near-instant responses. When performing tasks like megawatt injections, the system must return results quickly. Legacy GIS systems often lag here, but optimizing for performance with advanced data handling techniques and cloud infrastructure ensures the system remains responsive and efficient, even with large datasets.
Allow users to toggle between the before and after states when simulating grid injections. This feature provides a clear visual representation of changes like congestion or bottlenecks, making the insights more accessible and easier to understand and act upon.
Overlaying the current interconnection queue on the map provides users with insights into nearby projects and how these might affect capacity. Including additional data like fuel type, net capacity, and projected operational dates adds value and enhances planning.
A robust search feature is a key component of a user-friendly heatmap. It allows users to quickly locate points of interest using geographic parameters like county or postal code. A well-designed search function boosts efficiency and allows users to zoom directly into their areas of interest, enhancing the overall user experience.
A crowded map can overwhelm users, especially when there are numerous points of interconnection (POIs). Set up visibility ranges so that POIs only appear when the user zooms in, creating a cleaner, more readable map. Similarly, a well-balanced base map should offer enough detail without cluttering the heatmap.
To ensure users understand how to maximize the heatmap's features, provide a step-by-step walk-through directly within the interface. Cover key functionalities like toggling layers, running analyses, and performing searches.
By embedding the instructions, users feel more confident and can engage fully with the tool.
Onboarding Mockup
Creating a user-friendly heatmap for transmission planning involves more than good data—it requires a thoughtful design that prioritizes usability, speed, and clarity.
You can create a powerful tool that drives better decision-making by using effective color coding, improving interactivity, optimizing system performance, and guiding users with clear instructions.
But here's the big question: Are your heatmaps truly serving your users' needs, or are they leaving them overwhelmed and struggling to find actionable insights?
It's time to reflect on your current approach and explore where these tips could improve your user experience.