Here is the same sort of advice I'd give a web startup:
make it really clear what the point is, on the front page.
You have a pretty, color picture. Good start. It has a legend which pairs colors to numbers.
But what do the numbers mean, in useful terms? I looked a bit and did not find out. Does 20 mean we're all going to die, or the price of pet fish will go up 20%, or what?
I'm not sure if you're referring to the NYT image or our site, the site itself does a much better job of giving context:
http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/GlobalMarine
The 'How did we create this map?' header lays out our process and what the colors quantify, in reasonably clear language. Our page also contains a link to the paper itself, for those who want to understand how to interpret the results.
The results are the first attempt to systematically quantify the effect humans have on the species living in the ocean, and doesn't cover what those effects might drive in the markets. Hopefully an economist will build on our data to answer the kinds of questions you raised.
I'm on your site, and read that section, and it does not tell me what the difference between a 5 and a 15 is. If you want users, don't make them read the paper itself to find out. In other words, it's not obvious what units the numbers are in.
Edit:
Tried reading paper. Still not sure. It looks like you picked an equation that divides the scores into 6 sections. the top one being 15-90 and the rest much smaller ranges. i don't understand why that division maps to "high impact" etc terms, nor still precisely what that is supposed to mean. but there's a footnote:
17. Materials and methods are available as supporting material on Science Online.
in those materials, i find a chart saying the top section means > 90% degraded ocean. so ... does that mean 90% of the water there has turned to sludge? 90% of the animals are dead? something like that? if so, that's plenty easy to understand and could be made more prominent.
Curi, thanks for the helpful advice. I'll update the page to clarify the process and what the numbers mean. The numbers themselves are unitless; they represent the cumulative impact level from all threats combined.
What degradation means and how it effects our map should be illustrated, likely in a simple conceptual diagram showing how the color classification maps onto coral states.
make it really clear what the point is, on the front page.
You have a pretty, color picture. Good start. It has a legend which pairs colors to numbers.
But what do the numbers mean, in useful terms? I looked a bit and did not find out. Does 20 mean we're all going to die, or the price of pet fish will go up 20%, or what?