This week was focused on Amplifying Data, so I wanted to explore how to push my data visualisation skills and explore some interesting examples of data visualisation.
To start this week, I wanted to explore ways in which I could push my data visualisations (DVs). For this, I found this Medium article really useful as it has a lot of interesting ideas relating to this.
The first idea I found useful was the idea around choosing the right type of chart. This is something I hadn’t previously considered but it actually makes a lot of sense and is really important for creating effective DVs. This graphic helped me understand what each type of chart is used to show, for example, scatter charts are used to show relationships between data while bar charts are used to compare the data. I think this is always important to think about but is particularly important for using data in narrative design. The data in this project is being used to add to or embellish the content, so the format of it can be overlooked. I think making sure to select a format that actively assists the data will be really important to making the data an effective embellisher but also an engaging DV.
The second idea in the article I found really interesting was the idea of going beyond static reports. The example used here is from Apple’s Health app, which offers users different ways to view the same data but in doing gives the user different experiences. The more conventional list of data shows it as a report, a static representation of the data, while the bar chart allows the user to freely explore the data how they like. The declaration then show an insight into the data beyond just the figures, contextualising it for the user. This makes the data for more engaging and I think it’s really important to consider the dynamism of DVs. I think the interesting thing here is that these interpretations aren’t shown at once. We’re presenting data through interactive means, so theres no reason to just show the data all on one screen. This has helped me consider using levels of data and I think this could be a really effective way of DV.
20 ideas for better data visualization
While the previous entry on this blog post focussed more on Data Visualisation from the functional sense, I wanted to explore some more unique and experience focussed DVs. One example of this I found was the Planetary App by Robert Hodgin. Now this was created in 2011 where the expectation of an app was to “do cool thing” so this is more DV for the sake of DV rather than trying to illustrate a point through DV. The app is a visualisation of your music library as a solar system, with each planet being an album/playlist and each moon being song whose complete orbit is equivalent to the track length. It a really unique concept and visually incredible, especially for the time and what I find most interesting is the attention to detail around realistic orbits and solar systems. Hodgin’s blog of the project is a particularly interesting read and breaks down a lot of how they scaled the visualisation which I think shows the effort you really need to go to to make a DV that is both visually and factually effective.
What I find most interesting really is the creativity of the visualisation. It’s of course not the “best way” to view your music library but its a really unique visualisation that stays with you. As this project is about narrative design and art direction, I think “effective” design isn’t what I need. Engagement is far more important for this project, so creating DVs that are visually interesting and distinct is just as important as making accurate ones. Like I looked at in this weeks first entry, sometimes a DV needs to be an effective delivery of data, but for this project, it needs to also be visually interesting and engaging, and I think looking at Planetary has really helped me realise that.
App review: Planetary for iPad