DATA VISUALISATION
James Luke Richards Graphic Design Year 2 jlr@jameslukerichards.co.uk U1261281 07500103494
1
About the brief
The brief that we have been given seems like it could overlap our previous one as it consists of data collection, except this brief requires a full data set and to write a full project proposal (my own personal brief), I am going to come up with multiple options prior to developing my written project proposal. The proposal will become my own personal project brief and will be expected to identify clear personal/professional aims and objectives. So far I am not fully aware of what I am expected to do within this project, based on what I have discussed with a few of my friends on the course I basically have to create my own brief and then collect some data which can be primary or secondary, a lot of people on the course have been posting questionnaires on the Graphic Design Year 2 Facebook group so I’m guessing that the majority of people are collecting their data from online questionnaires, whereas other people are using the internet to collect secondary data based on things that they’re interested in such as football, weather and politics. I’ve noticed that a few people are linking their briefs to their taxonomy projects, I think it could be a good ifea, however I would rather create something new and different so I have a wider range of work and ideas for my portfolio. I am excited to get the new brief up and running as I always have problems getting started but once I fully understand what I have to do I am usually fine.
2
Popular Graphs
Using a bar chart is a good way to collect data as it can be used to measure small amounts of data as well as large quantities. Bar charts, just like pie charts, are useful for comparing classes or groups of data. In bar charts, a class or group can have single category of data, or they can be broken down furtherinto multiple categories for greater depth of analysis. Line charts will be very beneficial for this project as they’re most likely to display contant in a data visualisation type of way. As you can use several different lines to display data. Pie charts are also useful for when you have a lot of different data because it can all fit within the circle and still look clean and tidy, if you was to use a bar chart it might start to look complex and confusing. Pie charts are also used to show classes of data in proportionto the whole data set. The entire chart represents all the data. while each slice represents a different class or group within the whole.
3
Data visualisation examples
Here, I have collected a few examples of what data visulisation is. At first I struggled to identify the difference between a info graphic and data visualisation, I am now quite confident at indentifying the difference between the two of them. Info graphics are more like images with text that give you certain information, whereas data visualisation is more data related that gives you information by looking at the data.
4
Points that Man Utd have got over the last 10-20 years. How many different drinks IÕve drank within one week.
How many goals and assists Ryan Giggs has got in his career.
Where different alcohol drinks are made.
Drinks
What food IÕ ve ate within a week.
Sport
How many calories consumed.
food
Brainstorm
I have conducted a brainstorm, this will help me narrow down my options and come up with a final idea for what I want to do for my final piece. I’ve decided to take a look into different ways that I can display data in a visual format.
Different ideas Transport How many places I have travelled to within 1 month.
How much money IÕve spent on transport in 1 month.
Money Where do I spend my money the most?
The richest countries.
5
InspIration
To help me get some fresh ideas on what to base my final project on, I have looked at a few different pieces of work, I’ve looked at different types of info graphics and types of data visualisation. This piece of work is amazing in my eyes, I love the creativity behind it, and at the quality of the graphics. The graphics are basic but also very crisp and clear which makes them look very high quality. The whole piece of work is amazing, especially the colours used as all of the colours are easy on the eyes and all compliment each other.
6 InspIration
This is another piece of work that I think is cool, it’s a random info graphic that I found on the internet but I just thought it was funny and interesting to read, as it’s kind of true at the same time. The graphics are fairly average, but the concept is just fun and it would be interesting to do something similar to this but with a bit more creativity.
7
InspIration
I find this piece of work very interesting because, the creativity behind the thought of how the context and data would be implemented is impressive. It was created by a designer called Dave Bowker,. He has created many pieces of work in similar styles previously as he was working on a project called ‘One week of the Guardian’. It has inspired me as this is the best technique I’ve seen so far in terms of collecting data. I also like the aesthetic quality within the image as everything is so perfectly alligned. I think the use of colours compliment eachother really well, especially as he has put it on a black backround, it really captures the focus of the data as its very virbrant.
8
InspIration
This piece of work is called ‘Cinemetrics’ and is purposely done to measure and visualise movie data in order to reveal the characterists. Frederic Brodbeck would describe his work as a ‘visual fingerprint. In order to ceate this visual data, he extracts colours from each scene of a movie, pieces all the bits together, to create this visual fingerprint. I found inspirational when summarising ideas for this project because, the idea is very creative and the outcome and quality of his work is exceptional.
9
InspIration
I found this piece of data on the internet and was instantly inspired to use the structure of it and maybe go on to use it in my own work. Although the idea is very basic, the outcome is extremtly effective as it’s interesting to know how different peoples mind act in different cicumstances.
10 Idea 1
This is my first idea which is based on the previous work I have displayed in my inspiration section. The purpose of this idea is to track all the movements I make over a period of five days. I’ve created a basic map of huddersfield town centre which covers the most frequent places I tend to walk to on a daily basis. I’ve decided to track my movements for the next five days and then display my movements on five individual maps. Once I have collected all the data, I plan to extract it all and combine it all into one map so they are each overlapping eachother in different colours.
11 Idea 2
This is my second idea which is also related to travel. I tend to travel via train to different cities on a regular basis like; manchester, leeds, london and huddersfield. I then wanted to use all of this data to form a graph in order to display, where I travel, how often I travel, how far I travel and how much it costs me to travel over a four week period.
12 Idea 3
This is my final idea and I want to collect data based on manchester united’s football team. I want to collect a variation of data such as, the all time top goal scorers, the most expensive players, squad numbers and many more. I then want to display it in the format of the image on the right, the same style Frederic Brodbeck used to create his visual fingerprint.
13 Chosen Idea
So this is the idea I have chosen to go with, this is the one where I am going to manually record my steps for 5 days and track all my movements day by day. I will approach this writing down my destination routes and then I will inpiut them on the map by using the pen tool, I am going to do the lines a different colour for each day, then after the 5 days I am going to get all the lines and put them on to the same map, which will be my final data collected.
14 Development
Here, I have scanned the image of my map on to my computer, and I have now started to draw over it with Adobe Illistrator. To draw this map, I got a bsaic outline from Google Maps and cropped the image to my liking so it would show all of the destinations that I travel to regularary.
15
Tesco
Gym
Train Station
Iceland
Development
Solicitors Sainsburys
Bus Station
This is my idea developped, I have added more detail to the map, and I’ve plotted of all the buildings that I travel to on the map. I’ve also added blue speach marks annotationg the buildings to make it more easy to understand the map. Next I am going to start adding the lines and curves to the map to show where I have travelled to.
Kings gate
Sainsburys
Wilko
Asda
Uni
Lidl
Pub Lidl Snow Island
Home
Wickes
Posh Nosh Aspley Hall
Chippy
Iceland
24 hr Shop
16 Final Piece - Day 1
This is my first day of walking that I have manually recoreded, the red lines on the map symbolise my footsteps. On this day, I have walked from my home to the train station to drop my girl friend off there so she can go to work, I then walked to Snow Island to meet my friend for a coffee, after that I walked to Asda/Iceland to pick up some food for tea. I then walked back to home, when my girlfriend finsihed work at 5:00 she gets back to Huddersfield station for about 6:00 so I walked back to the station to meet her, and then walked to Sainsburys and then walked home, which concluded my day.
Day 1 Monday h c r a M h 10t 2014
Tesco
Gym
Train Station
Iceland
Solicitors Sainsburys
Bus Station
Kings gate
Sainsburys
Wilko
Asda
Uni
Lidl
Pub Lidl Snow Island
Home
Wickes
Posh Nosh Aspley Hall
Chippy
Iceland
24 hr Shop
17 Final Piece - Day 2
This is day 2 of my map, and for this piece I have chosen to use green lines to show where I’ve walked. Firstly, I walked my girlfriend to the station at 7:00am and got there for 7:24am and her train was due for 7:27am. After this I walked straight to the gym which is only a 5 minute walk away, after the gym I walked to Sainsburys to pick up some milk and then walked home which took me 30 minutes to get home, I was so tired. At 20 past 5 I set back off to the station and called in Lidl on the way to pick up some food for tea and then met my girl friend at the station for 5:40pm and then we walked back home and got back at 6:00pm and then I didn’t do anymore walking for the day.
Day 2 Tuesday h c r a M h 11t 2014
Tesco
Gym
Train Station
Iceland
Solicitors Sainsburys
Bus Station
Kings gate
Sainsburys
Wilko
Asda
Uni
Lidl
Pub Lidl Snow Island
Home
Wickes
Posh Nosh Aspley Hall
Chippy
Iceland
24 hr Shop
18 Final Piece 3
This is the 3rd day of my recordings and I’ve used a light blue colour to track my steps this time. Yet again, I started off my day by walking my partner to the station at 7:00am, I then walked back home to get changed and showered, I then walked to uni and speant the majority of the day in the library. After I finished in the libary, I walked to Kingsgate shopping centre with a friend as he needed to got to Topman. After Kingsgate, I walked to Grievs solicitors to have a meeting with my solicitor, I then walked to Wilkinsons and then after that I walked home. Then at 20 past 5 I set back off to the station to meet my girlfiend, once I met her we walked to Tesco to get lots of shopping and then we walked back to my apartment.
Day 3 y a d s e n d We h c r a M h 12t 2014
Tesco
Gym
Train Station
Iceland
Solicitors Sainsburys
Bus Station
Kings gate
Sainsburys
Wilko
Asda
Uni
Lidl
Pub Lidl Snow Island
Home
Wickes
Posh Nosh Aspley Hall
Chippy
Iceland
24 hr Shop
19 Final Piece 4
This is the 4th day that I have done, For this piece I’ve used yellow lines for my movements. As always I walked my partner to the station at 7:00am, then after that I walked to the gym. After the gym I went to pick up some things from Asda and then I walked to Lidl, after this I walked over to Snow Island to meet my mate and have a catch up. After this, I walked to the 24hr shop and then walked home, then I walked to the station at 20 past 5 to meet my girlfriend, then we walked back home. Later on at 8:00pm we walked over to our local pub to have a few drinks and then we walked back home.
Day 4 Thursday h c r a M h 13t 2014
Tesco
Gym
Train Station
Iceland
Solicitors Sainsburys
Bus Station
Kings gate
Sainsburys
Wilko
Asda
Uni
Lidl
Pub Lidl Snow Island
Home
Wickes
Posh Nosh Aspley Hall
Chippy
Iceland
24 hr Shop
20 Final Piece 5
This is the 5th and final day of me recording my foot steps, for the final day I’ve used purple lines to monitor my foot steps. Firstly, I walked to the station, I then walked to Snow Island to have a coffee with my friend. I then went to the libary at uni with my mate and stayed in there until 5:00pm, I then walked to the station to meet my partner and then we went home. At 7:00pm I walked over to the chippy to pick up some food for our tea.
Day 5 Friday h c r a M h 14t 2014
Tesco
Gym
Train Station
Iceland
Solicitors Sainsburys
Bus Station
Kings gate
Sainsburys
Wilko
Asda
Uni
Lidl
Pub Lidl Snow Island
Home
Wickes
Posh Nosh Aspley Hall
Chippy
Iceland
24 hr Shop
21
Tesco
Gym
Train Station
Finished Piece
Iceland
Solicitors Sainsburys
Bus Station
This is the final piece, I have taken the lines from all of the 5 different maps and have merged them all together on this map so it shows everywhere I walked within a 5 day period. I’m happy with the final piece as I wasn’t to sure how it would look but I’m happy with the final outcome. Looking at the map now, I think it’s crazy how much I actually walk, but I enjoyed this project it was fun and it allowed me to get as creative as I want which I enjoyed.
Kings gate
Sainsburys
Wilko
Asda
Uni
Lidl
Pub Lidl Snow Island
Home
Wickes
Posh Nosh Aspley Hall
Chippy
Iceland
24 hr Shop
Tesco
Gym
Train Station
Iceland
Solicitors Sainsburys
Bus Station
Kings gate
Sainsburys
Wilko
Asda
Uni
Lidl
Pub Lidl Snow Island
Home
Wickes
Posh Nosh Aspley Hall
Chippy
Iceland
24 hr Shop