Ted Talk: Art From Data with Natalie Miebach

Natalia Miebach is a Boston-based artist who translates weather data in sculptures and musical notes. In this Ted Talk, Natalie goes through her sculpture creation of Hurricane Noel in 2007. She explains how she turned the weather data into a unique sculpture that can also be read and played as musical piece. Natalie explains that weather systems and patterns are invisible to most of us. However, by using sculptures and music, Natalie makes what was invisible, visible.

Natalie’s method of data visualisations means that these pieces are accessible through multiple outlets – art, science and music. The viewer is challenged visually depending on the environment it is viewed in.

Miebach, N. (2011). Art made of storms [Image]. Retrieved 24 September, 2018 from https://www.ted.com/talks/nathalie_miebach

Most important aspect and why?

This was a really interesting and insightful was to view data and revealed that data can really be visualised in any way provided it create meaning. This approach is somewhat of a design technique in which Natalie applies using the data where the artwork output is purely reliant on the data. The most important aspect of this lecture was understanding that the data needs to inform the artwork or visualisation, not the other way around. Natalie ensures that the sculptures and the music created is a direct interpretation of the data. It isn’t manipulated to look or sound a certain way based on her personal interests. This was important because it reminded me that when approaching data visualisation it is important that the data informs the story told – that there is a story within the data not data within a story. In order to truly display original and unique patterns within data, this approach must be taken.

Reference 

Miebach, N. (2011, July). Art made of storms [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/nathalie_miebach

Ted Talk with David McCandless

The Beauty of Data Visualisation

In this Ted Talk, David McCandless delivers an intriguing presentation about the beauty of data visualisation. Figures and numbers are often hard to understand without the appropriate context. Visualising data allows you to see the hidden patterns that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

A saying going around at the moment is “Data is the new oil,” implying that the world is run off data. However, David reworked this saying to “Data is the new soil,” and described data as a fertile creative medium.

We are taking in visual data daily, however a lot of what we see is subconscious. Therefore, as data visualisers we can use this to alter perspectives and views. Absolute figures, often shown in the media, don’t really tell a full story. To make comparisons, and tell a story through data we need relative figures.

Visualising data allows for knowledge compression. We are able to allow of lot of information to be consumed quite easily when visualised correctly. Data visualisation can go beyond figures and numbers to ideas and concepts. We can then use it as a tool to explore worldviews and understand other cultures. For example, visualising conflicting political views can be easier to comprehend and take on board than being told them.

David concludes by displaying that data visualisation is about information solutions which can bring clarity and answer questions quickly and easily.

Most important aspect and why?

The most important aspect of this Ted Talk was understanding the power of data visualisation and its capability to change mindsets. The reason for this is whilst it is excellent to compare different figures and understand the budgets of countries etc, data visualisation can also be used to understand different cultures and why people do the things they do. With the right approaches and patterns revealed, this could help create harmony between cultures. Understanding often helps change behaviours and removes assumptions. Creating data visualisations that help people understand each other and the motivations behind things could help to remove hostility and create a more peaceful world. This Ted Talk again showed me that design really can be a powerful, when used correctly, to bring positive change and alter mindsets within society.

Reference 

McCandless, D. (2010). The beauty of data visualization [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization

Data Journalism at The Guardian

This week we will look at what data journalism looks like at The Guardian. At The Guardian journalism used to just be about words and carefully crafting those words to create imagery for the reader. However, now data journalism has revolutionised the way journalists tell stories. Data journalism means that you are not just confined to text, but you can tell a story through images as well. Journalists are the least trusted by the public, however by being able to show their findings through data visualisations it gives their stories more credibility. The Guardian are pioneers for data journalism and define data journalism as just journalism as they realise it has changed the journalism world.

At The Guardian, journalism didn’t exist until 2009, however it is something they have always been trying to tackle from the beginning. The Guardian have always been displaying data however technology has changed how it is displayed.

During the London Olympics, The Guardian created a visualisation to show the medals won by each country. However, unlike other medal charts at the time The Guardian combined things like population of the country, team size etc to allow for greater comparison. This created discussion about things like “why one country was better at running than another?” and how economics affected this. Data journalism allows for endless content and when made interactive it allows people to explore the data themselves and create their own conclusions.

Most important aspect and why? 

I found the most important part of this lecture was understanding how data journalism and data designers work together to create stories and inform the public of information. I found it really interesting that data journalism has become the new journalism, that using imagery to tell stories is now the norm. This was important to learn as it provided a reference point to study in The Guardian – to learn how they do things and how they interpret data. However, it was also important as it gave greater weight to the field of design and that the industry of journalism now works more closely with designers to tell their stories.

References

The Guardian. (2013, April 8). What is data journalism at the Guardian? [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBOhZn28TsE

The Guardian. (2013, April 8). History of data journalism at the Guardian [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBOhZn28TsE

The Guardian. (2013, April 8). Data journalism in action: the London Olympics [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyjBJzigm0w

Why do we use graphs?

As data visualisation designers we use graphs to make comparisons easier. Therefore, selecting the correct graph is important. Today it is quite common for graphic designers to select the wrong type of graph for their data due to trend, aesthetics etc. Currently bubble charts are quite on trend, however using circles causes us to always underestimate the size difference. Something to consider when selecting a graph type is that our eyes are good at calculating one dimension, however we are not good at calculation surface area (height X weight). Squares are much easier to compare more accurately.

In Albert Cairo’s book, The Functional Art, provides a ranking of graphic approaches to data based on human perception.

Cairo, A. (2013). Why do we use graphs? [Image]. Retrieved 3 September, 2018, from https://vimeo.com/177306425

Something like shading on a map to show height is used as a general indicator. It doesn’t need to be exact it is simply for relative comparisons. However, comparing dollar values using a bar graph is more accurate as it allows instant comparison.

The 3 most common graph types are:

1. Time series chart
2. Bar chart
3. Scatter plot

Some examples of when to use certain charts:

Bar Chart: These graphs are familiar. They are one dimensional and easy to use to compare two things. They are best to use when comparing data across two categories.

Line Chart: This type of graph is used to display trends over time. For example the stock price over a 5 year period.

Pie Chart: This type of graph is used to compare relative proportions or percentages of information. For example the percentage of a budget that has been spent. A handy tip is if your data requires more than 6 pieces of pie, a different graph type would be more appropriate.

Most important aspect and why?

The most important aspect of this lecture was gaining an awareness of the importance of selecting the correct graph type to present your data. I have noticed the trend with bubble charts and have found them quite visually appealing, however hard to interpret. Therefore, it was interesting to hear that these are perhaps not the best graph type to use to present data to allow for accurate comparisons. The reason this was the most important aspect was because data visualisation is a new area of design for me, therefore I tend to think graphically rather than presenting the data in the best way to be understood. It is good to know that simple and familiar graph types, like the bar graph, are often the best form to present your data and that understanding the data is the most important aspect to remember. It was also interesting to learn that the human brain can only compare one dimension and calculating surface area is quite difficult. This is something I will need to keep in mind, again that understanding the data is priority over visual appearance.

Reference

Cmielewski, L. (2016). Data presentation styles: Why use graphs [Video File]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/177306425

Historical & Contemporary Visualisation Methods: Part 2

In Part 1 of Historical and Contemporary Visualisation Methods we looked at historical examples where data visualisation has been influential in this field. We left with the question – “Why visualise?”

This post will show an example and discuss why visualisation design is more than designing something pretty but is used to provide the reader with insight and understanding.

Alberto Cairo, in his book functional art, discuses visualisation design and looks at an article he read on the worlds population. The article discussed a conflicting view about the poor/rich fertility rate. The author suggests that the fertility rates of the poor and rich will merge and the population will stabilise. Whilst, many views claim that the poor fertility rates and the rich will decrease, blaming the poor countries for overpopulation.

Ridley, M. (2010). Percentage increase in world population. The rational optimist: how prosperity evolves [Image]. Retrieved 22 August, 2018 from http://www.qsm.com/blog/2013/whats-story-your-data-0

The articles uses one graph (above) to support the claims. Whilst the graph is clear and simple, it is insufficient to support the claims made by the author.

Cairo, A. (2013). A comparison of Spain’s and Sweden’s fertility rates [Image]. Retrieved August 22, 2018, from https://vimeo.com/176255825

Cairo gathered his own data on total fertility rates from the United Nations and created his own graphs to show that their is more sufficient way to support the argument made by the author. Cairo created a comparative graph about Spain and Sweden’s fertility rates (above). This graph provides clear, comparative data and gives the numbers a shape that helps the reader understand the data easier. However, to fully understand where the original article got its information we need to see the global fertility rates.

Cairo, A. (2013). Fertility rate [Image]. Retrieved August 22, 2018, from https://vimeo.com/176255825

This graph on Fertility rates is an excellent example of someone who has taken something that worked for a small set of data and let the software producing the graph create something on a large scale. Rather than interpreting the data and creating a graph that gives insight and understanding, this is the “default setting.” This graph is hard to look at and there is no visual hierarchy.

Cairo, A. (2013). Fertility rate [Image]. Retrieved August 22, 2018, from https://vimeo.com/176255825

Cairo created the above graph to display global fertility rates over time. This graph highlights a few poor and a few rich countries to help support the authors view and the hypothesis presented.

From this example provided by Cairo, we can see the importance of providing enough data for a reader to follow and argument or to engage in an evaluation for themselves. Visualisations need to carry meaning and provide the reader with enough information for them to see how a conclusion has been made. The examples of the historical visualisations shown in the previous post were simple in the data provided. The final visualisation in this post of a modern example is quite data heavy, requiring more of the reader. This suggests that we have more graphically/ visually sophisticated viewers than in earlier times.

 

Most important aspect and why?

This lecture discussed a really important point when designing data visualisations. That being, that the main function of data visualisation is to create insight and understanding for the reader not just present a pretty image. This helped my understanding in what I need to aim to achieve when creating data visualisations myself. Whilst appearance is important, it needs to carry function. For example the use of colour, font and layout to create visual hierarchy needs to be with purpose and to add meaning to the data, not just to create a beautiful image to look at. Our newsfeeds are full of pretty infographics that carry little to no meaning. I want to aspire to create data visualisations that carry meaning and educate the reader on something they couldn’t have seen without it.

Cairo’s example of how to properly support an argument with visualisations was very helpful in understanding how to approach this myself. Whilst the graph the reader used was clear and simple, it didn’t provide the reader with the chance to compare the data themselves. I found this important and helpful to see how Cairo pulled apart the information and displayed the data in a meaningful way. What worked for one set of data (the comparison between Spain and Sweden) didn’t work for the global comparison. It is important to understand your data and not just use a graph that the computer generate as, seen in the messy Fertility Rates graph, it is not always the best method of approach.

Reference 

Cmielewski, L. (2016, July 25). Visualisation: Historical and contemporary visualisation methods- Part 2 [Video File]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/176255824

Historical & Contemporary Visualization Methods: Part 1

Visualizations have been around for many years and are used to grasp complex data easily.
In 1812 Napoleon’s army invaded Russia, Charles Joseph Minard created an infographic to depict the magnitude of events. His infographic took a lot of data and displayed easily how things went from bad to worse for the army. This infographic is an example of how visualisations reduce the time needed to understand a given event. It gives the audience tools to analyse and make comparisons themselves.

Minard, C. (1869). Figurative Map of the successive losses in men of the French Army in the Russian campaign 1812-1813 [Image]. Retrieved 20th August 2018 from https://seanmunger.com/2015/09/28/napoleons-tragic-retreat-pictured-minards-famous-infographic/

In 1858, Florence Nightingale created the famous visualization about the deaths of British soliders in the Crimean War. Florence was a nurse who cared for the injured soldiers at the time. Florence noticed that many of the soldiers were dying unnecessarily and kept record of this. She published a monograph from her collected data which revealed that the real threat to British troops was not the Russians but disease. Florence’s graph revealed comparative data over time to give a holistic view of the problem.

Nightingale, F. (1859). Diagram of the cause of mortality in the army in the east [Image]. Retrieved August 20th 2018 from http://blog.visme.co/interesting-infographics/

Otto Neurath, a socialist and economist in Vienna, created a museum to make economics understandable to the uneducated. He created the International System of Typographic Picture Education. He created the concept within visualizations that rather than showing larger pictures to show more of something to show repetition of the same sized image. He believed in taking the information to the people rather than the other way around. He used the idea of using visual information to transform the masses. Below you can see his visualisation about Home & Factory Weaving in England. He communicates big ideas simply so that it is easy for the uneducated to grasp the information.

Neurath, O. (1939). Home and factory weaving in England [Image]. Retrieved August 20th 2018 from https://eagereyes.org/techniques/isotype

 

Most important aspect and why? 

The most important aspect I learnt from this lecture was the importance visualisations have in educating and revealing information that couldn’t be seen without them. For instance, Florence Nightingale’s monograph was instrumental in ensuring that the British army did not continue to die unnecessarily. Her carefully collected data revealed that the amount of deaths could be reduced, which would impact the British army positively. This historical data visualisation is important because it shows the power and impact carefully collecting data over a period of time can be. Florence chose carefully how to present the data in order that the information may be fully grasped. A bar graph could have worked for each aspect of the data, however it would not have depicted well the impact over time. Florence was aware of the story she was trying to tell and choose her method of visualization accordingly.

 

I found the information about Otto Neurath inspirational as he used his skills in design for a greater purpose. He used his knowledge of design to visualize important information that even the uneducated were able to understand. The reason I found this inspirational was because it was an important reminder to use my design for a good purpose not to just design for the sake of it.

Reference 

Cmielewski, L. (2016, July 25). Visualisation: Historical and contemporary visualisation methods- Part 1 [Video File]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/176255824

Data Types

Depending on the data being collected, we use different type of data measurement in order to make sense of it. There are four main types of data measurement:

1. Nominal
2. Ordinal
3. Interval
4. Ratio.

Nominal data refers to named categories. It is an unordered form of measurement as no category is greater than the other. An example of this is when you are in a grocery store there are different categories that products come under. For example foods that come under dairy, produce etc would be seen as a nominal way of measurement as no category has greater value than the other.

Ordinal data is used for ordered non-numerical data. An example can be seen below of ordinal data measurement.

Interval data is a numerical data measurement, however it doesn’t have a meaningful 0 value. An example of interval data is the temperature as the value of 0 doesn’t mean the absent of heat. Other examples are time of day, calendar and years.

Ratio data is numerical data that does have a meaningful 0 value. The 0 indicates an absence of whatever you’re measuring. Examples of things that use this type of data measurement are height, weight, age and money.

Qualitative and Quantitative Data

Qualitative is non numeric descriptive information. This is nominal and ordinal data,

Quantitative is numerical data as it is quantifiable. This is interval and ratio data.

Most important aspect and why?

The most important aspect of this lecture was understanding the different forms of data measurement in order to apply the correct measurement type when collecting data. The reason this is important is it helps to understand how to give meaning to the data by using the correct measurement in which the data is first collected. In order to help my understanding of each data type I have gathered images as a reference point for later on.

Nominal data: 

Unknown. (2017). Examples of nominal scales [Images]. Retrieved August 13th 2018 from https://www.mymarketresearchmethods.com/types-of-data-nominal-ordinal-interval-ratio/

 

Ordinal data:

Bertram, D. (n.d.) Likert scales [Image]. Retrieved August 13th 2018 from http://poincare.matf.bg.ac.rs/~kristina/topic-dane-likert.pdf

 

Interval data: Average Temperature Chart of Jos, Africa 

Unknown. (n.d.) Average temperatures jos [Image]. Retrieved August 13th 2018 from https://en.climate-data.org/location/46664/

Ratio Data: 

Soltas, E. (2013). Average salary in the securities industry in New York City versus in all other industries [Image]. Retrieved August 13th 2018 from http://evansoltas.com/2013/02/27/5-more-graphs-on-finance/

 

This lecture helped me understand the main types of data measurement used today. I learnt that overall data comes under two categories, categorical or numerical and from their we can work backwards to determine which data measurement should be used.

 

Reference

Waterson, S. (2016). Data types [Video File]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/176274669

What is Data?

We live in a time where we all generate a lot of data. Everything we do seems to be connected to the online world and thus creates data trails. Every app you use, every site you engage with, every payment you make – it all generates data. Data is essential to helping us understand social, environmental and political systems. As the world changes and data increases, new visualisation strategies are needed to make sense of this data.

So what actually is data? Data is values of qualitative and quantitive variables belonging to a set of items and/or the result of measurements. (Waterson, 2016) Data by itself actually has no meaning. For data to contain information it must be interpreted to take on meaning. This is where data visualisation comes into things. What is data visualisation? Exactly as it sounds, data visualisation is the visualisation of data. It is one of the steps in data analysis and its goal is to communicate data clearly through graphs.

You have probably heard of the term infographic before. However, did you know there is a difference between infographic and data visualisation? Infographics are not necessarily based on data wheres all data visualisations are all information visualisations. Infographics often look pretty but don’t really contain a lot of information wheres data visualisations add meaning to information. For example the image below of an infographic about a process is not a data visualisation. It is a list of process not based on data.

Mcguire, S. (2018). Happiness tips infographic [Image]. Retrieved 10th August 2018 from https://venngage.com/blog/9-types-of-infographic-template/

Effective visualisation makes complex data more accessible, understandable and usable. It helps users analyse and give meaning to information.

As Data Visualisation Designers processing, analysing and communicating data creates many challenges. It is important to use the right visualisation type for the different types of data we need to visualise. The bar graph is the most basic and common visualisation, however it is the best when comparing two variables (see example below). When trying to decide what type of visualisation to use you should ask yourself “Why should I not do a bar graph?”

Unknown. (2015). Total revenue by product [Image]. Retrieved 10th August 2018 from https://irina150.wordpress.com/2015/10/08/bar-charts-versus-pie-charts/

The line chart or timeline (see example below) are the best default choice for looking at data over time. People are familiar and comfortable with both these types of visualisations and can read them easily. This is important as it allows for effective communication which is the foundation for our visualisation. The main role of the Data Visualisation Designer is to use data to tell a story.

Excel Easy. (n.d.). Line Chart [Image]. Retrieved 10th August 2018 from https://www.excel-easy.com/examples/line-chart.html

 

The 4×4 Model for Winning Knowledge Content 

Shander, B. (2014). The 4×4 model for winning knowledge content [Image]. Retrieved 2 August, 2018 from https://vimeo.com/100429442

 

Most important aspect and why? 

The most important aspect I took away from this lecture was that we as designers are to use data to tell a story. It is not about producing a “pretty picture” but whilst it is important to make visually pleasing, data visualisation is about interpreting data to give meaning and understanding. My understanding of data visualisation has already increased as I didn’t know that their was a different between infographics and data visualisations. My perspective has already changed on how I am to approach this semester and look to interpret data to tell a story. The reason this is important is because as communication designers if we are designing pieces that are not communication anything we have essentially failed at our job. Therefore, it is important to analyse data, interpret it and communicate it clearly so that the audience understands something that they wouldn’t have previously.

 

Reference

Waterson, S. (2016, July 18). What is data vis? [Video File]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/175177926