User Manual
Transport planning is an essential aspect of a city’s development involving stakeholders in maintaining and strategizing transport systems. Failure to successfully establish such transport plans leads to long-term effects that not only concerns local government units (LGUs), but citizens as well. In the Philippines, there is no uniform process for transport planning since it varies from area to area. Moreover, private sectors are commonly more knowledgeable in transport planning than LGU officials. In trying to minimize the gap of resources for these individuals, Plexus was developed to assist in this task.
Transport desirability, a relatively new concept, is a calculated score of transport indicators that gives an overview of the state of transport systems in a certain area. The transport desirability framework includes the following indicators: (a) spatial, (b) temporal, (c) economic, (d) physical, (e) physiological, (f) psychological, (g) sustainability, (h) performance, and (i) fairness. Since the framework was only recently developed, there is a need to provide both professional and non-professional transport planners an intuitive tool to aid them in transport planning.
Both the client-side and the admin-side of the application are accessible through the web. For a better experience, it is suggested that Google Chrome should be used to access the application.
On the homepage, a list of cities available for a user will be displayed. Click on the preferred city to view the map. Only published cities are visible to the user.
Once a user has chosen a city, the city overview consisting of its transport desirability score, actual population, sample population, and income, among others, will be displayed as well. In addition, a list of the top barangays can also be seen on this tab.
A user may filter the transport desirability score and see its distribution by color or range. A user can filter by modifying the values on the text fields that represent the maximum and minimum bounds of filtered scores. Alternatively, the user may opt to use the slider to filter. The barangay rankings at the bottom of the side panel can be paginated and sorted either in ascending or descending order through clicking the sort icon beside the pagination. A user may opt to click on a barangay name in the rankings to view specific data of the selected barangay. Data that will be presented to the user would the selected barangay’s population, average monthly income, transport desirability ranking, indicator breakdown, accessible amenities, and origin-destination information.
The choropleth map showing the city is colored by barangay: the higher the score (yellow shade) means the better of higher desirability, while a low score indicates otherwise. The road network of the selected area is also presented to the user. If a user opts to filter, barangays that do not satisfy the filter parameters will not be colored. To collapse and uncollapse the legend for the map, a user would have to click the floating action button with the list icon. Moreover, a user may zoom in and zoom out by using a mouse wheel. Once a user zooms into the map, smaller roads such as side streets would be visible.
At the bottom of the page, data summaries or stories can be accessed by clicking on the round icon at the bottom right side. To collapse the Data Summary section, a user would have to click the round icon again.
In the left panel of the city map page, a tab menu can be found. Click ‘Indicators’. A description of each indicator can be accessed by hovering over each indicator. A user can view the individual indicator scores by clicking on the preferred indicator. The colors in the map will change in relation to the chosen indicator, and a range filter will appear at the bottom.
The range filter will reflect on the map. A user may opt to filter by modifying values on the text fields below to serve as the minimum and maximum bounds of the filtered values. A user may also utilize the slider to set the bounds.
If a barangay has not been selected on the map yet the user has selected an indicator, the right side panel will view a City Overview containing the distribution of barangay scores of the selected indicator. A list of barangays based on their corresponding score is presented and can be interacted with through clicking the arrows to view the list in a ranked order and to sort them by ascending or descending order.
In the left panel, click ‘Qualities’. A user can choose which amenities can appear on the screen by toggling the desired amenity group in the left panel. A user may opt to hover on an amenity to identify its corresponding name and category. The user may opt to zoom in and out using a mouse wheel to locate the amenities.
Transport desirability and its indicators are also computed per barangay. A user may click on a barangay on the map to view its scores. Moreover, a tooltip with the barangay’s name and transport desirability score will appear on hover. Once clicked, the origin-destination points of the barangay will also be shown on the map. In addition, a right panel will appear with a bar graph of the barangay’s indicator scores, barangay amenities, frequently occurring origins, and most common destinations.
A user may opt to click on a barangay name in the rankings to view specific data of the selected barangay. Data that will be presented to the user would the selected barangay’s population, average monthly income, transport desirability ranking, indicator breakdown, accessible amenities, and origin-destination information.
Aside from the maps and side panels, Plexus also provides features for comparative analysis. Data stories or summaries can be viewed by clicking the bottom panel labeled ‘Data Summary’. The data stories page spans the whole screen and consists of the parallel coordinates, table view of the data used in the system, scatter plots, city amenities and frequented destinations, and mode share by demographic. Each group of data visualizations has descriptions provided for a user to comprehend the visualizations’ uses.
Parallel coordinates are a common way of visualizing multivariate data. Each item in the x-axis in the parallel coordinate is the indicator, while the items in the y-axis are the barangays. Lines are colored based on the corresponding barangay’s color on the map. A barangay’s color on the map depends on what menu item (indicator or transport desirability) is selected. Data is presented on the parallel coordinates and its table view is sorted by the menu item (indicators or transport desirability) selected on the left side panel. A user may filter using the filter on the left side panel. A user may opt to filter by modifying the text fields below or by sliding the minimum-maximum bounds. Hovering over a row in the table will also highlight the corresponding line on the coordinates.
Below the parallel coordinates, a table view of the data used in the system is displayed. The table consists of the name, income, population, transport desirability score, and indicator scores of the city. Filtering using the parallel coordinates also reflects on the table.
Viewing Variance of Barangay Scores and Effect of per Indicator to Transport Desirability through Scatterplots
Scatter plots are accessible to see the correlation of indicator scores to transport desirability. Moreover, it gives the user a view of how variant or similar data is within a city. Scatter plots could also be filtered using the left panel. Each data point serves as a representation of a barangay score.
To support assumptions about the selected city, a user may opt to view a summary of city amenities and the mode share of frequent destinations. For the City Amenities section, the user is presented with the overall count of per amenity category. On the other hand, the Frequent destinations section displays a stacked bar chart that the user can interact with through hovering. Once a user hovers over a bar, the type of transport mode and the overall count of people who utilize the transport mode is presented.
To learn more information about the values presented through different visualizations, a user would have to hover over bars to view its corresponding category and its count based on survey data.
To view the map in 3D, a user would have to click the topmost floating action button with a prism icon. Clicking this button again would revert the 3D view of the map. To collapse and uncollapse the legend for the map, a user would have to click the floating action button with the list icon.