Reading The Smoke
Colorado Wildfires Redesign
Python
Altair
Data Visualization
The Problem: My team built a dashboard asking whether extreme heat drives more wildfires in Colorado from 2014 to 2022, with Mesa County as our focus. Our findings were solid, but the dashboard made readers work too hard to see them.
My Role: I led the redesign and wrote it up on Medium.
Process
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Added a scatterplot that shows heat days and fire duration in one view, so readers don't have to compare two separate maps
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Swapped the green-to-red palette for a tan-to-red sequential one that works for colorblind readers
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Rewrote chart titles to state the takeaway, sorted bars by value, and simplified the time series so Mesa stands out
Result: The redesign makes the main finding clear at a glance: heat doesn't predict fire duration. Mesa County averages 40 days over 90°F but only an 11.8 day fire duration, and it ranks 5th in total fires (493) behind La Plata (691).
What I Learned: Accessibility should be the starting point, not an add-on. Designing for colorblind readers made the charts clearer for everyone.