So, I finally have something relevant to blog about. Its funny how blogging here defined the time of my life when 'I had some clarity'. Blogging has become a distant memory and I am beginning to think its because like many other fellow designers I know I have been lost and confused. ANYWAY..back to things that matter:
A little background to this work is that 'Information is beautiful' is David McCandless' website and they come up with challenges then and now. This one was called challenge of the stars. For more details you can check out his work and events. The task was to take this data and visualize it. When I opened the doc, I was overwhelmed by the levels, layers and complexity of the data. 2 weeks down the timeline and this is where it was leading:
Full View
It tells you how a film stood on audience rating and industry rating and which studio, genre it belonged to. Films shown here belonged to the year 2011. So, a film that was loved by the audience wasn't necessarily the critics' favorite (happens with many chick flicks). My biggest concern here, was following the lines to studios and the fact that the names of the movies were missing. There is something about network visualisations, they look pretty and intense, but following the lines just seems so taxing. Personally after doing this iteration, I am not a fan of complex network visualisations. I shall search for comprehensive network visualization examples.
So, at this point I started rethinking the story I was trying to tell and wondering if I was introducing unnecessary complexity. How I wished I could make this interactive (makes visualizing layers of information so much easier). *sigh*
Well here is an image that exposes the names of the films, to help you understand better
Full View
Well, with half of my time sucked into this and not more than 4 days left to the deadline, naturally I *freaked out*. Thankfully an extension came as a blessing and I took a completely new direction. COMPLETELY!!! New story, new direction, new data and as a result, new visualization. This one shows performance of different genres across 5 years, it also shows contribution of the best films of the genre to the genre's success.
For a clearer view check it out here
Of all the design projects I have done till date, this one showed the most drastic change in direction during the process. I am glad in a way, that I could explore two different directions in 3 weeks.
A little background to this work is that 'Information is beautiful' is David McCandless' website and they come up with challenges then and now. This one was called challenge of the stars. For more details you can check out his work and events. The task was to take this data and visualize it. When I opened the doc, I was overwhelmed by the levels, layers and complexity of the data. 2 weeks down the timeline and this is where it was leading:
Full ViewIt tells you how a film stood on audience rating and industry rating and which studio, genre it belonged to. Films shown here belonged to the year 2011. So, a film that was loved by the audience wasn't necessarily the critics' favorite (happens with many chick flicks). My biggest concern here, was following the lines to studios and the fact that the names of the movies were missing. There is something about network visualisations, they look pretty and intense, but following the lines just seems so taxing. Personally after doing this iteration, I am not a fan of complex network visualisations. I shall search for comprehensive network visualization examples.
So, at this point I started rethinking the story I was trying to tell and wondering if I was introducing unnecessary complexity. How I wished I could make this interactive (makes visualizing layers of information so much easier). *sigh*
Well here is an image that exposes the names of the films, to help you understand better
Full ViewWell, with half of my time sucked into this and not more than 4 days left to the deadline, naturally I *freaked out*. Thankfully an extension came as a blessing and I took a completely new direction. COMPLETELY!!! New story, new direction, new data and as a result, new visualization. This one shows performance of different genres across 5 years, it also shows contribution of the best films of the genre to the genre's success.
For a clearer view check it out here
Of all the design projects I have done till date, this one showed the most drastic change in direction during the process. I am glad in a way, that I could explore two different directions in 3 weeks.
