Some lovely visualizations coming out of Visualizar ‘09. Below is a screenshot from “New Political Interfaces”…a look into what politicians vs. news outlets are talking about:
Interesting library of design patterns for data visualization here:
http://www.patternbrowser.org/code/pattern/pattern.php?4,1,0,1,0,6.php
Based on Christian Behren’s Masters’s thesis — his pattern library is here:
http://interface.fh-potsdam.de/infodesignpatterns/patterns.php
Create a visualization that reveals a compelling story using the intersection of two data sets — one should be gathered using the NYT APIs, and the other should be a non-NYT data set of your choice. Projects will be undertaken in groups of two. Written proposals are due next Friday and should include the following:
1. Overview
A short summary of what your project will be. Give me your best elevator pitch here.
2. Data
The data sources you will be using
3. Design Questions
A set of questions that you intend to answer or explore. At least one question should be about the data itself (i.e., what is the story you’re hoping to tell?), but these questions may also address design methods or technical approaches.
4. Prior Art / Precedents
Discuss at least two existing works that are similar in some respect to your proposed project. How do you see your project in relation to this ecosystem of other works? Will it contribute something unique? Will it address problems that you see in other works?
5. Collaboration
A brief explanation of how you plan to collaborate with your partner.
Eric Rodenbeck has posted a recap on Stamen’s real-time Twitter visualization that aired on MTV during the VMAs. Check it out >>
For this assignment, each group will be researching the opportunities and challenges of visualizing a specific type of data set. These data types are:
- unstructured text
- geographic data
- personal experience / data
- relationships (between ideas, people, organizations, etc.)
- photographs and imagery
- events over time / time-based information
Come in prepared to present to the class about your data type. Try to answer the following questions:
- What are the characteristics of this kind of data set?
- What kinds of stories are likely to surface from this kind of data?
- What are the biggest design challenges in visually representing this kind of data?
- What types of visualization methods are most frequently used? How are these methods more appropriate to the type of data?*
- Give 2 examples of data visualization projects that use this kind of data set. Do you think they are successful or unsuccessful? Why? What do they do well? Where do they fail? What could be done to improve them?
* Some types of visualization methods to consider when researching are listed below. Also refer to this week’s reading assignments for examples of visualization methods.
- bar graphs, histograms, sparklines
- pie charts
- scatterplots
- network diagrams
- stack graphs and area graphs
- geographic maps and cartograms
- bubble graphs
- treemaps
- tag clouds
- timelines
- radar graphs
- concept maps
- Chernoff faces
Nathan Yau over at Flowing Data has put together a good overview of various software, tools, and programming languages you can use to produce your visualizations. Take a look >
Welcome to the class blog for the Fall 2009 Data Visualization Collaboration Studio. Please review the syllabus, if you haven’t already done so. Also check the student list on the right side of the page (after 09/09) to make sure that your website is listed and linked. I look forward to working with all of you this semester!