Presentation

It seemed to have been rather taxing before the presentation, due to the fact that our group was far from being fully prepared. Luckily, we managed to pull through. Initially, I wanted to create a more creative form of infographics, but it just seem like I don't have enough resources and time. I guess we will have to settle with the current layout. This is the rush hour.

Our current progress: finished the infographic and finishing the report
Hope to finish it by tonight and submit tomorrow!

Class Exercise (Yahoo)

Cool session with the Yahoo guy, inspired a few new ways of representing data. Data set was also interesting. Class exercise was well received and constructive feedback were given by him. I think for him, choosing the interesting and relevant question is very important, he never failed to re-emphasize each groups' focus and what information they could have obtained if they were to conduct a visualization project. Pretty slick. Each group came up with different ideas, like activities on weekends, colours, food etc. The good thing about the class exercise was that we were given an imaginative data set to work with. With no boundaries, students can ask anything and have everything to work with. Perhaps, my takeaway is that if there isn't sufficient data and openness for data visualization, creative works and discoveries won't be made. Since a visualization should tell a story, it is only necessary for the story to have content.

Class exercise

I think this is long overdue but here are my definitions of data visualization and infographics:

Data visualization: huge data, multiple data, complex graphs, open for interpretation, simple, allowance for multiple understanding, freedom of users to interpret, derived information.

Infographics: appealing, interpreted data, numbers, simple, comprehensible graphs, single interpretation but allows users to use the interpreted data in their own ways, fed information.

There is a thin line of difference between data viz and infographics, but a good informative design should incorporate both to make data more comprehensible and yet interesting.

Fat/Cholesterol Per 100g of Chicken cooked in different styles

Bar

Fat Contents Comparison by Cooking Methods

Fat Contents

A3 Infographics

A2 Draft

Based on what I did for A1, I continued the same style and designed A2.

However, this time round, i added a much stronger singaporean feel to the poster. I guess that makes my infographic unique. the pastel color seem to blend in well with each other. black background brings out the colour contrast well. The graph is not readable but if its printed at A3 size, it is possible to read it. 

A1 Is finally completed!

Okay, I was exploring to find my style of infographics during the past few weeks. So i did quite some experiment.

In the end, I did 2 graphics for the same data. I kind of liked the second one more. My A2 is based on the same layout or so. clean and clear. 

A1 Draft

Took me some time to do this data compilation, kinda wasted a lot of time on what should be what. No idea what was required of the project as well, but this was what was made. Simple colour combination letting users interpret the data on their own, assisting and emphasizing using bold fonts. Not sure if I should explain more or simply leave it be. I don't think I should treat the reader as a dumby. 

CHOO EE HWEE'S Comment: 

Your infographic is pretty attractive but I feel that maybe a few changes would make the data clearer. I have noticed that you bolded certain percentages in the first half on the infographic, is there any reason for it? And I think the bolded percentages would be more obvious if they were of a larger font size?
 
As for the graph in the second half, I think a smaller scale with increments of 2 would make the data clearer. As of now I can’t really see the lines from 0-5.


Yup, have to agree with her, would probably upsize the font if it doesn't affect the aesthetics. It is to emphasize which country contributed most to which category. As for the graph, yup definitely. I will try to increase it as much as possible. However the main purpose isn't for them to read the data but just seeing how the contributions from USA increased so much over time. Maybe I should write some stuffs nearby to make it obvious. I think I should explain some parts of the graph as well. 

Exercise 1

Analyze Singapore General Elections 2011 tracker (http://ge.swarm.is/)

This tracker allowed users to:

1) See which issues rose in popularity during the election
2) What are the concerns of Singaporeans
3) When did the issues picked up pace in popularity
4) How fast did the news spread
5) How quickly the news died
6) Agenda settings by the media

However, it was useful to a certain extent since it only seeks out keywords. Yes, we do know that PAP is the most talked about issue in Singapore during the election however, how much of these contents are in favor of PAP or against PAP were not shown.

NM3228 - NM3229

This blog has officially changed to the learning blog for NM3229 Data Visualization for this semester! Yeaaahh