A record, not a verdict
What I think is working.
My own self-assessment, seeded from the QA notes and reflections. These are judgement calls, not measured audience responses. I score the current version in the context of its revisions. From day 5 I write a short reflection instead of a score.
1 = weak, 3 = mixed, 5 = strong. I have left the response column empty until there is evidence from people.
Day 01 / Points
Dartmoor by starlight
| Measure | Score / 5 | Why I gave it this score | What people actually responded to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engage | 4 | The star metaphor makes the difference between height and drop worth a look. | |
| Understood | 4 | B defines drop beside the symbols; A asks readers to decode two measures. | |
| Good to look at | 4 | Relief gives the stars a surface, though small labels still need enlargement. | |
| Useful to a professional | 3 | A useful comparison of hills, not a terrain or route-planning tool. | |
| Clear to anyone | 3 | Drop is unfamiliar, and the faint stars may still be missed on a phone. |
Day 02 / Lines
The Wheel
| Measure | Score / 5 | Why I gave it this score | What people actually responded to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engage | 4 | The wheel is a recognisable pattern, and the staged reveal gives it an order. | |
| Understood | 4 | Two sea colours are easier to follow than seven river colours. | |
| Good to look at | 4 | The lighter ground separates the streams without glow. | |
| Useful to a professional | 3 | Network assumptions are explicit, but this is not a hydrological model. | |
| Clear to anyone | 4 | Named outlets and a finding-led title help; stream order still needs explanation. |
Day 03 / Polygons
Where you may roam
| Measure | Score / 5 | Why I gave it this score | What people actually responded to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engage | 4 | The large 48% gives a reason to read the map. | |
| Understood | 4 | Two land classes explain the total; the legal proxy still needs careful wording. | |
| Good to look at | 4 | B removes competing panels, hatching and colours. | |
| Useful to a professional | 3 | The layers are useful context, but not authoritative legal guidance. | |
| Clear to anyone | 3 | An apparently simple access claim needs caveats; green shades may merge in greyscale. |
Day 04 / Clusters
Where the stone gathers
| Measure | Score / 5 | Why I gave it this score | What people actually responded to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engage | 4 | The inside/outside comparison is clearer than 51 coloured groups. | |
| Understood | 4 | A stable share leads; clustering uncertainty stays explicit in the text. | |
| Good to look at | 4 | The quiet palette gives the heritage line room to be seen. | |
| Useful to a professional | 4 | Alternative settings support the headline, without claiming heritage value. | |
| Clear to anyone | 3 | Records are not individual buildings, and blank land outside the council may mislead. |
Day 05 / Sight
St Paul's dome viewshed
Zero chroma everywhere except the data let one shape carry the answer. The number is fragile, so the page has to say so; the pattern is not.
Day 06 / Vintage
Fewer than half of Midlothian's woods are on recorded old woodland sites
The honest headline was narrower than the one I wanted. Naming a patch needs a rule, and a rule can take a good name away.
Day 07 / 10 minute map
About one in nine Glaswegians lives within a 10-minute walk of the Subway
Being honest about a 63-second map meant saying everything that was done before the clock started. And a second map needed a different subject, not just a different colour.
Day 08 / Utopia
About half of Manchester lives within 300 m of a mapped park
Four designs on one set of numbers. The maps that looked best were not the ones a reader could use: a neighbourhood and a plain question did more than a palette.
Day 09 / Urban-rural
Half of Britain's people live on less than 5% of its land
Ranking the squares turned a density map into a statement about shares. The film's numbers belong to one scale, so the safe claim has to be stated next to the exact one.
Day 10 / Prompting only
In so many words
A recognisable shape can make a result feel more complete than it is. The check has to show both how well the recalled places were positioned and which places were missed.