“Jess Hull’s Worldy Wanderings” – Assignment #2 (Datavisualisation)
1. Build a data visualisation: scientific, sociological, ecological, personal (your own life,
for example, is a trove of data: blog posts, browser history, last.fm, iTunes, books
read, TV watched, meals eaten…). If the data is not your own, ensure that it is used
under an appropriate license. The visualisation can be either algorithmically
generated or hand-crafted, but consider how its design can help the user discern
patterns hidden in the “raw” data. Demonstrate an awareness of how different types
of visualisations are more or less useful at achieving their aims. Consult with your
tutor on possible techniques and forms to present your visualisation.
a) I have chosen to build a datavisualisation of the time I have spent overseas in the 20 years I have been alive. This is a personal datavisualisation, but could easily be the same for any other young person who has taken a gap year or travelled extensively. I chose this topic as it is one that I know a great deal about, and could be useful to another person who is preparing, or thinking about travelling overseas.
b) The theme I have chosen is (I believe) clear and easily read. I chose ‘Century Gothic’ as my font because I felt it was a clear and easily read type, that felt young and fresh. The color scheme is bright and eye catching, but hopefully does not take away from the text or graphs.
c) The visualisation is algorithmically generated using the graph generator on microsoft excel, then tailored to my specifications in photoshop. I chose a pie chart, a flow chart, a map and a bar graph because I felt that these were charts that younger people encounter frequently and would be able to read. I chose to display ‘facts’ from the charts or from data I gathered from my computer because it seems that people like ‘facts’ that they can recite to other people. These do not nessesarily tell you what you do not already know, but display information in a way that is easily recited.
Overall I am happy with my work. If I were to do it again I would print it off as the piece is meant to be veiwed on A3 Paper, and some text will be small when veiwed on a computer screen. Also, I would use only 5 or 6 colors.
