Post

The central topic for this week’s reading and activity was focused on data. Data plays an immense role in how information on the internet is stored and displayed, as well as the different types of data used to transmit information and present them to viewers. In the activity for the week, we were presented with three different sample visualizations that display various types of information for separate subject matters. The first sample visualization was a display of team member cards that presented knowledge on employees currently working in a company. Immediately when viewing these team member cards, one of the first things that catches the viewer’s attention are the bright colors used to signify each team member’s individual card and position in the company; this attraction to color is also followed by the mesmerizing transitions that can be viewed when clicking on a different card. Each card is set up so that it contains a photo, name, title, phone number, location, and a brief description of the employee’s main role at the company. In terms of data for this sample visualization, I suspect that the types of data needed for this structure are scalar and dictionary compound data. All of the items such as name, photo, phone number, etc. are all independent scalar values; the use of these scalar values coincide with the use of dictionary compound data within the team member cards, as well as how the information of the employees is accessed through a database and presented in the current format. This visualization is advantageous in the way that it grabs the viewer’s attention, and is both simple and straightforward. The team member cards are not boring to look at, and instead convey a fun and pleasant atmosphere which allows the viewer to think positively of the company. A disadvantage to the team member cards is that they are restrictive in the information they provide on the company itself. The second visualization sample presented was The Demographics of Others. In this site, Nathan Yau exhibits a look at the demographics of different races, ages, and genders within the U.S. through various pie charts. The site allows the viewer to choose their sex, age group, and race or origin; each time a viewer selects a specific choice in these groups, the data represented within the pie charts changes and shows the given results for the specific demographic. The data most likely used for this visualization involves scalar, compound data, and possibly combining lists and dictionaries. All of the different scalar values of the demographics would have be listed in some way along the different breakdown categories. The advantages of The Demographics of Others is the site’s ability to quickly and easily display the data of the different demographics in a concise and appealing manner, as well as the opportunity to choose a specific demographic that applies to a viewer. Different colors of the pie charts make it easy for the viewer to see the different percentage breakdowns and how they change according to a specific demographic. Disadvantages to this site is that it does not necessarily display the numerical value of the percentage point for each breakdown of categories; the viewer is only able to see an estimate of the percentage through the charts. Something that could be more effective in this site would be to provide a numerical value of the percentage of the different categorical breakdowns. The final visualization sample is Based on a True Story, a site that demonstrates the the breakdown of the accuracy of films based on true stories through percentage, color coordination, and categories; the site allows the viewer to explore the accuracy scene by scene with certain colors labeling whether that scene was true, close to being true, unknown, mostly false, or completely false. The data types most likely involved in presenting this information are scalar, list compound data, and dictionary compound data. For this site there would be a lot of word and numerical values, as well as blobs for the various scenes of the film. Advantages to Based on a True Story are that the site provides a numerical value in percentage of authenticity, there are different colors associated with the different categories between true and false, and it allows the viewer to take a closer look at the movie by providing scene by scene descriptions of the authenticity. Disadvantages to the site would be the presentation of the authenticity of the film at first glance; the movie is presented as one long bar with various colors representing which parts of the film are true, false, and so on. The representation of the various colors in one bar can be overwhelming for a viewer seeing this data for the first time. Although it is a nice opportunity for the viewer to see the authenticity of the film in depth scene by scene, this can also be considered a disadvantage as it would take the viewer quite some time to sit down and go through the whole film. One way that this site could be more effective would be to allow viewers to click on the different categories (true, false, etc.) and then display all the scenes that fall under that category; this would allow the viewer to perceive the scenes that are true, false, or unknown in an efficient manner.