Data Visualisation Sam Blower U1262183
The Brief You must collect a suitable data set and write a full project proposal (your personal brief). Your research will need to be thematically clear and you should be prepared to present and justify it weekly in seminars and tutorials (during open studio sessions). Your research and project development should be presented in logical format, via your blog, and should be annotated with written reflection. Develop multiple options prior to developing your written project proposal. This proposal will become your personal project brief and will be expected to identify clear personal/professional aims and objectives. It will integrate reflections derived from your previous project and the formative assessment you received. From your data set you will develop the most appropriate concept and produce a cohesive body of work. The presentation of this work may be a number of static images or designs, moving image, virtual display, animation or physical installation – as outlined within your proposal.
Project Proposal To start the project I first had to write up my project proposal, before doing this I had to pick what I was going to use as my data. It came to me quite quickly that I should use social networking as my topic because it automatically gives me large amounts of data about my friends that I am able to use. Here is my Project Proposal.
My Original Idea The original idea that I had was to explore the mutual friendships between all of my different friends. It was interesting to see how they would link together to form complex webs and shapes as they would link together. I had originally picked one person with the first name of each letter of the alphabet from my friends list. I didn’t want to use peoples names because then I would have to ask permission, so I replaced them with these simplified icons that I created to represent them.
Despite having created quite a few visuals that I liked the style of, I couldn’t really see how I would be able to progress this idea other than possibly experimenting with line styles. I think part of the problem was that I rushed into this idea without really thinking where I could take it. I have instead decided to scrap this idea at least until I have collected a better selection of data.
Collecting Better Data I decided to collect information about 50 of my facebook friends. I collected their age, location, number of friends, how frequently I contact them in real life, on Facebook or on the phone.
I can now use this data for a series of graphs and I will be able to compare and contrast the information about the various people. I have included a number next to each name so to protect their names if necessary.
I also asked people from my course to fill in a quick survey to try and collect similar data, however I was not able to get as specific data as I would have liked from these surveys. Mainly because people are not willing to fill in a really long winded sheet if there isn’t something to make it worthwhile for them.
I used the data that I collected to create a series of graphs, I had each category on a scale of 1 to 8. Instead of just having a standard line graph I decided they would look more visually interesting if I put them as circles rather than flat line graphs because it would give me more to work with to create different graphs. I created the grey outlines as a guide to see how long to make each line, the graph could look good with or without the lines.
Designing Graphs I used my collected data to create these various graphs, I liked the idea of keeping them as circles because they look quite visually interesting. I experimented with using separate colours and line styles, however I couldn’t help but think that they don’t really serve a purpose on their own. I needed to think of a purpose that they could serve, whether that is for a poster, a pull out of a magazine or even as some kind of app.
Designing A Pullout I decided that it would work well as a pullout for either a magazine or newspaper article. An idea that I had was to mock up a Facebook page and to have my data and graphs put into it.
An analysis of my Facebook “friends”
Sam Blower 297 “Friends”
Profile 22nd January 93
Sam Blower I decided to pick a sample of 50 of my Facebook “friends” to analyse. I picked the first 50 off my list and decided to create a series of graphs. Like • Comment • Share - 45 Seconds Ago
Male Huddersfield Student
Sam Blower This graph is whether I like them or not.
Details The length of the line indicates how frequently I am in contact with each particular Facebook friend. The colour of the line indicates whether or not I like them.
Like • Comment • Share - 5 Minutes Ago
Sam Blower This graph is how often I see them in real life.
Like • Comment • Share - 21 Minutes Ago
Sam Blower This graph is how often I call or text them.
Like • Comment • Share - 38 Minutes Ago
Sam Blower This graph is how often I contact them on Facebook.
Like • Comment • Share - 43 Minutes Ago
Because the graphs are about Facebook I decided to go with the theme of a Facebook Profile to display my graphs. Dispite being happy with the result, I can’t help but think there is a better way to display my graphs.
Improving The Graphs I wanted to improve the look of the graphs because it isn’t that clear what each graph means to the viewer, despite me knowing what each one means. I needed to separate each bar of the bar chart into the 8 sections.
The Final Graph Designs
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I am quite happy with the way that the graph designs have turned out. I decided to use negative space to separate the different bars into 8 segments, the data is measured in frequencey out of 8 so it works quite well. Each of the large graphs represents how frequently I contact each of the individual people.
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I am happy with each of these graphs, especially the individual graphs. Now I just need a good way to present them. I am not keen on the idea of keeping the magazine pullout so I think I am going to create an application for an Ipad or Tablet.
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Via Facebook
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Jane G Birmingham 160 Facebook Friends
Neil B Leigh 67 Facebook Friends
Annabelle R Huddersfield 344 Facebook Friends
Ben G Hinckley 579 Facebook Friends
Matty W Huddersfield 718 Facebook Friends
Chloe H Wigan 440 Facebook Friends
App Designs I have decided that my graphs would work best as an Ipad app, the user can log in with their Facebook details and it will pull information about their friends. It can show information about how frequently they contact them.
Key
Logo Design I started designing a good logo to go with the app, I struggled to think of a name at first but I soon came to the decision of calling it FaceGraph because it is graphs made from Facebook information.
Finished App I finished creating all the items for the app. I am happy with the way it turned out, I think that it works well. The app would make use of the touchscreen functions of a tablet meaning that you can scroll between different sections of the graph to find out more information.
Evaluation I am happy overall with the way that my app turned out. The app looks quite proffessional and think that it would be interesting for people to use to explore their facebook friendships. On the disk I have included two videos that are demonstrations of how the app works.
If the disk is not here you can find the videos at these links. http://youtu.be/7pBNjx4620s http://youtu.be/1snJM5ttiXc
www.samblowerdesign.co.uk