Layering

The idea of Layering is quite an important principle to be using in the Ningaloo Destination Model. It is essentially the process of organizing information into related groupings in order to manage complexity and reinforce relationships in information. The reason for it's importance in the Ningaloo Project is because of the vast range of complex data that needs to be understood by the public and used to project future predictions. In order to present the data in a logical and user friendly way it has to be organised properly. The way that I approached this problem in the project was by firstly distinguishing the four scenarios. This is because the Scenarios are each separate entities in terms of model runs and comparative data. Which means the data in one scenario did not need to relate with data to a separate scenario. Each Scenario also has its own distinctive qualities in a away. Once in a Scenario option, the user is then prompted to select a subregion. This is where the data is filtered yet again. Which means that instead of showing all the possible model runs for every possible subregion, only the data that relates to what the user has specified appears. The next layer of information the user has to go through is what type of model run they want to look at. For example: Activities or Economy etc. Then within these runs are even more specific runs within them such as What Sort of Activities: Snorkelling, Shopping, etc. These are all ways of effective layering that helps organised information more efficiently. It also makes the interface look more user-friendly and simplistic, rather than cluttered and confusing. Another proficient thing about this Destination Model is its ability to produce up to three 'runs' at a time. The 'runs' chosen are also compared against each other.