Emma

Thu Jun 4
1. Build a data visualisation: scientific, sociological, ecological, personal (your own life, for example, is a trove of data: blog posts, browser history, last.fm, iTunes, books read, TV watched, meals eaten…). If the data is not your own, ensure that it is used under an appropriate license. The visualisation can be either algorithmically generated or hand-crafted, but consider how its design can help the user discern patterns hidden in the “raw” data. Demonstrate an awareness of how different types of visualisations are more or less useful at achieving their aims. Consult with your tutor on possible techniques and forms to present your visualisation. I have chosen to build a data visualization and in doing so, I interviewed a university student-Tamara Candy to find out what common activities she does on a weekly basis. I used Microsoft excel to present the raw data and then using this data, generated several different graphs. The activities chosen are based on what Tamara considers to be important in her life: Activities per week:Snacks eatenMusic downloadsFacebook loginExerciseEditing journalism storiesBooks readAssignments dueAlcohol intakeI then monitored how many times Tamara done these activities over a period of 5 weeks starting with week 10 and ending in week 15. I done this by asking Tamara to write down how many times she done the activities in one day and then multiplied the number by 7 (7 days in a week).This data was then made into a data visualization by using different graphs to convey the data.The first graph is the Pie graph. The pie graph shows the data being represented through a percentage. Each week being represented through a different color and having a different percentage. By comparing a slice of the pie with the overall pie, one can see which activities Tamara does more commonly than others.The second graph is an absolute area graph displaying the way the data has progressed or not progressed over time and emphasizing on quantity. The third graph is a bar graph. The data displayed in the form of a bar graph is used to compare the amount or frequency of occurrence of different characteristics of data and it is used to compare groups of data.The fourth graph is a column graph. The data represented in the form of a bar graph shows each weekly activity compared to each other overtime. One could see how Tamara has progressed with one activity one week in comparison with another week. The purpose of displaying Tamara’s weekly activities in the form graphs was to show how often she does her activities per week and how this changes over a period of time. One could take the raw data and use it to investigate further. Presenting the raw data in the form of graphs would be the most appropriate way to convey data to someone effectively.  Michael Friendly, a professor of psychology and editor of the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, is an expert in the field of statistics, graphics and macro writing. Friendly claims that data visualization is made up of two main parts-Statistical graphics and thematic cartography. In the 1800’s, statistical graphs were being used all over France, Germany, England and elsewhere to distribute data from economical and national interest. Overtime, turning statistical data into a visual element has become an integral part of teaching, research and development.  The aim of the graphs is to compare and contrast Tamara’s weekly activities over a period of time. The raw data can be used for a survey, research or simply to find out about Tamara’s personal life. This form of design is similar to information graphics and statistical graphics.   This form of data visualization is different to other works in the field because it is not as complex and it best represents a person’s personal activities.

1. Build a data visualisation: scientific, sociological, ecological, personal (your own life,

for example, is a trove of data: blog posts, browser history, last.fm, iTunes, books

read, TV watched, meals eaten…). If the data is not your own, ensure that it is used

under an appropriate license. The visualisation can be either algorithmically

generated or hand-crafted, but consider how its design can help the user discern

patterns hidden in the “raw” data. Demonstrate an awareness of how different types

of visualisations are more or less useful at achieving their aims. Consult with your

tutor on possible techniques and forms to present your visualisation.

I have chosen to build a data visualization and in doing so, I interviewed a university student-Tamara Candy to find out what common activities she does on a weekly basis. I used Microsoft excel to present the raw data and then using this data, generated several different graphs. The activities chosen are based on what Tamara considers to be important in her life:
 Activities per week:
Snacks eaten
Music downloads
Facebook login
Exercise
Editing journalism stories
Books read
Assignments due
Alcohol intake
I then monitored how many times Tamara done these activities over a period of 5 weeks starting with week 10 and ending in week 15. I done this by asking Tamara to write down how many times she done the activities in one day and then multiplied the number by 7 (7 days in a week).
This data was then made into a data visualization by using different graphs to convey the data.
The first graph is the Pie graph. The pie graph shows the data being represented through a percentage. Each week being represented through a different color and having a different percentage. By comparing a slice of the pie with the overall pie, one can see which activities Tamara does more commonly than others.
The second graph is an absolute area graph displaying the way the data has progressed or not progressed over time and emphasizing on quantity.
The third graph is a bar graph. The data displayed in the form of a bar graph is used to compare the amount or frequency of occurrence of different characteristics of data and it is used to compare groups of data.
The fourth graph is a column graph. The data represented in the form of a bar graph shows each weekly activity compared to each other overtime. One could see how Tamara has progressed with one activity one week in comparison with another week.

The purpose of displaying Tamara’s weekly activities in the form graphs was to show how often she does her activities per week and how this changes over a period of time. One could take the raw data and use it to investigate further. Presenting the raw data in the form of graphs would be the most appropriate way to convey data to someone effectively.  Michael Friendly, a professor of psychology and editor of the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, is an expert in the field of statistics, graphics and macro writing. Friendly claims that data visualization is made up of two main parts-Statistical graphics and thematic cartography. In the 1800’s, statistical graphs were being used all over France, Germany, England and elsewhere to distribute data from economical and national interest. Overtime, turning statistical data into a visual element has become an integral part of teaching, research and development. 

The aim of the graphs is to compare and contrast Tamara’s weekly activities over a period of time. The raw data can be used for a survey, research or simply to find out about Tamara’s personal life. This form of design is similar to information graphics and statistical graphics.   This form of data visualization is different to other works in the field because it is not as complex and it best represents a person’s personal activities.

Sun May 24

24/5/09

I was originally going to do question 2 for my project B assignment but have now changed it to question 1. I have chosen to do a data visualisation! I chose to center the assignment on a personal account of my freinds weekly activities. i done this using esxcel then arranged the data in different ways-graphs. I am yet to complete my rational but so far its coming along smoothly.

Sat May 16

16/5/09

This week i have been working on the final project for this unit. I will be doing question 2 of project B and plan to do a historical theme, mainly concentrating on statues/plaques that represent a piece of history from the 1900’s in canberra.

Wed May 6

7/5/09

During todays tute,The class looked at some interesting examples of ‘Multiplicity’.
An example that stood out to me was the works of Jason Salavon and the first example that was shown-Photos of people in the city within a theme-smoking, holding flowers, looking up, all wearing one color. The first example got me thinking about what i may do for Project B.
I also found the youtube clip of Bush singing ‘Sunday bloody Sunday’ very effective!! Its amazing what can be done with original online footage!

Fri May 1

just another blog entry!!

After reading the “We are the web” article, it gave me more of an understanding as to how the internet has evolved overtime and what it was like back then as opposed to now. Its weird to think what it would be like without the internet because its so widely used.

“But if we have learned anything in the past decade, it is the plausibility of the impossible”.p.2 I think this statement is so true. As chris goes on to talk about ebay-how people were saying they would never buy a car from ebay and just last year $11 billion worth of vehicles were sold! The internet is constantly progressing and it will be interesting what it will be like in another 10 years time. Atleast we will be able to keep an open mind as opposed to those who had no faith in the internet!

Fri Apr 10

Project A Rational

Take an existing website that includes significant user transactions: examples include

online shopping, financial sites, social sites and the like. Diagram the site’s

information flow, with particular attention given to user management - login,

passwords and preferences. Critique the way the site handles that flow: how could it

be improved? Compare the site’s approaches with alternatives used by similar sites

and explore why they might have made the decisions they did.

Above is an information flow diagram for the social networking site Facebook. The diagram displays the way a user interacts with Facebook, concentrating on the main features of the sight and the order the user would go by when they logged into Facebook.
Facebook is designed for users to be able navigate around the site easily. When a user logs in, they are faced with their newsfeed which enables them to see the latest updates about their friends, groups and much more. The site is constantly changing in terms of the layout of the website and this has become a problem for some of the users. Groups and petitions were being made asking for the old Facebook layout back because users were finding the new Facebook layout inconvenient, confusing and some even saying that the site was becoming more like MySpace and losing its originality.  
Facebook is successful with its approaches because it has incorporated many aspects of other popular social networking sites into one for example the status/mood updates on Facebook are similar to the layout on Twitter and the friends updates that appear on the Facebook newsfeed are similar to what features on the homepage of MySpace. Facebook has the advantage of being able to connect with people by searching for their school or major in college, and if you find someone you’d like to meet you can request to become their friend. Also, you can stay updated on what’s happening to your friends and what their status is. You can also send out invitations to your friends if you have an event. whereas MySpace and twitter and most other social networking sites don’t have this.
The reason for Facebook being so successful is due to users easily being able to connect with friends from high school and college, email and chat. No other popular social networking sites have the feature of being able to re-connect with high school or college friends and this is one of the main reasons that the site appeals to an older target audience.

Rationale

Whichever project you choose, you will need to accompany your assignment with a rationale:

this is a 500-1000 word blog post that discusses your process and explains your choices. Your

rationale should:

• Demonstrate that you understand the technical processes involved in your production,

and explain the processes you used and why

• Demonstrate that you understand the cultural context of your production project – for

example by identifying and discussing related work.

• Demonstrate that you have responded to this cultural context in your production work

– which design patterns or conventions have you followed, and why? How is your

project different to other works in the field?

I have chosen to create an information flow diagram for the social networking website ‘Facebook’.
In doing so, I examined the site closely, concentrating on the way a user navigates around the site and what aspects of the site they spend most of their time viewing. I then documented the steps that a user would do in order to navigate around the site:
Home
Newsfeed
Friendship contacts
Profile
Photo
Comments
Status updates
Applications

I then made this into a flow diagram using Photoshop and described what each of the steps are used for. I chose to use the colors blue, black and white because these are the main colors that appear on the Facebook site. My reason for presenting the flow diagram in this way was because this best describes the way a user navigates around Facebook from start to finish and gives an overall view of what each step signifies.

The Facebook flow diagram demonstrates the way a typical user would interact on Facebook. This as opposed to using Flickr, twitter, MySpace and many other popular social networking sites is different in the sense that Facebook is centered around connecting with friends and described by the site ‘TwitTip’
“A social networking Portal; beckoning you not to leave but rather to stick around and communicate within the network”. The information flow diagram is simple and aims at portraying Facebook in the same way however it can be argued that Facebook is otherwise in comparison with other social networks such as Twitter.  As TwitTip also states:

“Twitter is simple and feels like Google did in 1998, while Facebook offers a portal-like interface somewhat reminiscent of Yahoo”

The diagram displays that one of Facebook’s features is ‘Photos’. Facebook enables a user to share photos with their friends as well as tag them for the cost of nothing. A site that also centers are around photographs is Flickr. The site allows people to socially interact by creating groups for certain types of photos for the cost of $27.75 per year. Facebook users can also control who can and can’t see their albums.

The information flow diagram is very simply laid out. It is straightforward and enables the viewer to understand the functions of Facebook even if they are not a user.  This diagram as opposed to the Flickr user mode http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryce/58299511/l is a lot more simplified whereas the flickr model may appear to be confusing as it is a more complex diagram. The aim of the above flow diagram is to show the main aspects of the Facebook site in order of how a user would navigate around the site and accompany each function with a description of what it is used for.

 Project A Flow Diagram

 Project A Flow Diagram

Thu Apr 9

Project A

Some good sites/forums i have found to assist me with my assignment are:

http://bokardo.com/archives/will-flickr-and-youtube-outlast-myspace-and-facebook/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22414564@N04/2603421038/

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/04/16/facebook-vs-myspace-battle-global-social-network-dominance

http://www.twitip.com/twitter-versus-facebook/

these sites compare facebook with other popular social networking sites.

Wk 6 Blog Post

During today’s tute, i have continued working on Project A for networked media. I have pretty much finished it and almost ready to hand it in tomorrow. Today i have been looking at similar works related the question i am doing and other flow diagrams.
This week i worked on producing my flow diagram in photoshop. It took me a few days to produce the final piece but i am pretty happy with the final outcome.
I hope to have the assignment finished by the end of today :)
Happy holidays

Wed Apr 1

wk 6 blog

During class today, i have been working on my first assignment for Networked media. Its harder than i thought! I plan to do question 1 and relate it to facebook. I am in the process of making a facebook information flow diagram. At the moment i am looking on the net for other flow diagrams to get an idea of how to set it out. The flickr concept model has given me a better understanding of how a flow diagram should be set out. I chose to do facebook because its one of the most widely used social sites in the world and i am always on facebook!
I must get back to my diagram :0(
Emma