FORESEEN - Intuitive AOP Visualizations

[Clemens Wittwehr]

The recently published Science for Policy Report “Addressing evidence needs in chemicals policy and regulation” points out a series of steps to be taken in order to increase trust between the various stakeholders in chemicals regulation. It also shows a strong appetite for visual rendering of knowledge to make it more navigable and digestible. This is what is greatly appreciated by users of the AOP Wiki, as emerged from the focus groups and user studies conducted. These visualisations mediate between the different perspectives brought by different studies, approaches and interests: they are literally a medium for bringing them together, and at the same time, they play an intermediary role between perspectives, supporting steps towards greater agreement and productive discussions. In this sense, they are bridging technologies. Because they play such a pivotal role, their design is extremely important. In fact, the design of the visualisation frequently goes hand-in-hand with the design of the framework, as it focuses attention on the component parts, relationships between them, and the definitions and classifications of terms that will be used by each of these.
It is therefore desirable that the way AOPs are visualized is revisited and the diagrams be aligned with the expectations of the user community and the recommendations of the report.

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This issue was addressed in a series of Focus group meetings in 2022, and it is foreseen that the recommendations derived from the these sessions will be implemented in AOP-Wiki 3.0.