Course project

My project for course: Analog Data Visualization for Storytelling

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Final visualization
Final visualization

From a set of books on one of my bookshelves:
How does my intended use of the saved books compare with how I have used them?

  • Each "petal" represents my intended use.
  • Distance from the center represents how long ago I last picked up the book: the center is the present and outer edge is over 5 years ago. Count layers out from the center to count years.
  • The rest is described in the legend, below.
Final legend
Final legend

I only realized as I was posting the final artwork that I didn't indicate TIME, which I’ve explained in the above note. Interestingly, at least for that bookshelf, no books appear to have been read at all four years ago!

Another interesting point is that indicating which books were poetry was a very last minute decision. These are the books I most often read by "dipping": I prefer to read just one or two poems, rather than trying to read an entire book of poetry. This way I have time and space to digest their meaning and impact.

Deciding what story to tell, and what data to collect.
Deciding what story to tell, and what data to collect.
Exploring visual variables.
Exploring visual variables.
Early ideas about building a visual language for this project.
Early ideas about building a visual language for this project.
I did many quick sketches to brainstorm underlying architecture.
I did many quick sketches to brainstorm underlying architecture.
No to implied hierarchy and no to blobs!
No to implied hierarchy and no to blobs!
I settled on a radial structure.
I settled on a radial structure.
Establishing rules…
Establishing rules…
Finalizing the legend…
Finalizing the legend…
Experimenting with visual language, showing how I accessed a book.
Experimenting with visual language, showing how I accessed a book.

On the left I tried crescents in different shades of red. On the right I tried symbols. In the end I chose to go with the symbols.

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2 comments

  • stefanie_posavec

    Teacher Plus
    01.02.2023 at 16:32
    Stefanie Posavec

    This is a lovely drawing, so beautifully rendered!
    It's also a fascinating dataset as looking at the visualisation makes me wonder which books created a negative effect :) ... I also find it interesting that many of the 'fun' books didn't have an impact, but maybe that's ok?

    It chimes with my experience: I sometimes 'light and fun' books for enjoyment that are an enjoyable story but certainly don't stick in the mind after I've read them ...

    Thanks so much for sharing, and thanks for joining my course, I appreciate it :)

  • peninasharon

    01.02.2023 at 17:41
    peninasharon

    @stefanie_posavec Thank you, Stefanie! Re the 'fun' books, I was actually more surprised that there were a few of those who had significant impact! That said, one could argue that the fun itself is impact…

    Thanks so much for offering this. I got a lot of value from this course and was just thinking last night that I am so thrilled I can re-listen to some of your recordings.

    P.S. I tried a couple more times to loosen the final rendering so that the petals would feel less rigid, but those attempts didn't work out.

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