5. Color is used to make the image more appealing by making the city more colorful than it actually is.

Transcription

1 Maciej Bargiel Data Visualization Critique Questions 1. The Montreal Map is a piece of information visualization primarily because it is a map. It shows the layout of a city while also denoting with visuals and writing, any interesting or notable locations in the city. Theoretically, this map provides navigational information to the viewer while also giving them a sense of the city itself, its feel and atmosphere. 2. The intended audience is likely intended for tourist or vacationers looking for their next travel destination. Additionally, it may be intended for businessmen. 3. This map, along with the rest in its series, is meant to be more attractive than informative. By making the city look more attractive, it tries to convince people to visit it. 4. The colors and shapes used in the map contribute to a pleasant image of the city, but those will be discussed later. The city itself is shown in an isometric view, showing the look of the buildings while also providing a minimal amount of navigational data. No person would use the map to actually navigate throughout the city due to a lack of accuracy in its data, but it is useful for getting a general idea of how the city is laid out and what landmarks one might see while being there; all valuable details for a tourist considering visiting the city. Additionally, most of the landmarks pointed out seem to be corporate headquarters, something only businessmen would enjoy seeing. 5. Color is used to make the image more appealing by making the city more colorful than it actually is. 6. Modern cities come in varying shades of gray, meaning that the huge amount of green in this map is misleading. The bright blue windows, orange rooftops and shining river all contribute to a very idyllic scene used to represent this city. More functionally, the textboxes presenting the names are white with brown borders, setting them apart from the scene and making them more readable. Similarly, roads are white to stand out and be noticeable. 7. Yes, the shapes are all mostly rounded and made to seem non-threatening and soft. This is used to counteract the usually blocky and rigid aesthetic of modern buildings. 8. The shapes all work together to increase the aesthetic of the city. The shapes which contain information inside them have more rigid shapes. While still being non-threatening, they seem more official and stand out more, helping them catch attention and convey the information they contain. 9. The emotional response is meant to be one of interest or affection. The city looks pretty so that people become interested in it while also spending more time looking at all the marked features of the map. The map is meant to attract viewers, and that is exactly what it is geared to do. 10. The image is definitely not truthful. Given what is known about cities such as Montreal, it is obvious that the colors, shapes and atmosphere of the city have been tweaked to increase appeal. There are no

2 cars on the roads, no people in the streets and it all contributes to an idyllic city, rather than a realistic one. 11. How accurate is the data with regards to the level of detail presented? How much has been tweaked to increase aesthetic appeal? 1. The map of social network use is a data visualization because it takes data concerning the number of internet users and displaying it in several ways that all accentuate the differences between the data. The visual elements it chooses make the differences in the data readily apparent. 2. The intended audience is composed primarily of people interested in internet usage statistics or people who run businesses that have a large component of their services offered over the internet or involved in the internet. 3. Such a visualization would help those business people decide what area would be most worthwhile to expand in. It provides valuable usage statistics including saturation and worldwide percentage. These are valuable statistics to business people. 4. The features which suggest this preference are the simple design of the visualization, primarily using white as well as only presenting information for a select number of countries that would likely be most important to those people. 5. Color is used to give an air of professionalism to the visualization as well as clearly distinguish between sets of data. 6. The white and black makes the visualization look simple while the different colors for the different regions make them distinct from one another. The red relating to GDP draws attention to itself and emphasizes its point about how lucrative internet commerce can be. 7. There are several shapes, though circles are used primarily, in pie charts and other circular charts. Additionally, the shapes of the world s continents are also present. 8. The uniformity of the circles allows their difference in size to be more noticeable while also allowing for a visual continuity and allowing pie graphs to be used. Meanwhile, the continents serve to make clear what areas the data refers to. 9. The emotional response is to be in awe of the US, but especially of India and China, who have large internet populations that are a small portion of the actual populations and to be surprised at how small European nations internet populations are. 10. The image is perhaps not as truthful as it could be, emphasizing only a small number of nations it considers important and using only the factors it wants to. This leads people to the conclusion that China is ripe of expansion given the percentage of people using the internet, as an example.

3 11. What percentage of e-commerce GDP do these nations each account for? 1. This graph is an example of data visualization because it takes the statistics for most popular baby names of every year and displays it on axes indicating their popularity and the years, unit by unit. 2. The intended audience consists of those who are interested in naming trends over the years in the United States. Also, it may also contain people who are thinking of names for their baby. 3. The graph is rather plain and emphasizes which names were most popular while not showing any truly worthwhile information. It is a novelty more than anything. 4. The data itself suggests this, while the way it is presented does not allow for any detail besides which names were most popular when. When broken down into individual names, the data becomes slightly clearer, but more misleading. 5. Color is used to segregate boys and girls and also to emphasize names that are more popular in a certain timeframe. 6. The color choices are intrinsically associated with males and females, making for easy recognition and are also easy to differentiate. 7. There are no shapes per se, but the thickness of the lines adopts polygonal shapes. 8. The girth of the shapes indicates how popular the name is, so wider lines indicate more popular names. 9. The emotional response is curiosity and mild surprise at which names were popular during which periods. Also, perhaps sadness that one s own name has never been popular. 10. The image is not entirely truthful as it obliterates any subtleties to the statistics in favor of emphasizing the most popular names. It does not accurately represent the distribution of names over the years. 11. The populations of the United States has increased over the years, why does the bar become more compressed as it approaches the modern day? 1. This is an example of information visualization in that it visually represents the correlation between SAT scores and the books students achieving those scores read by plotting it on a graph. 2. The intended audience may be students who may be looking for good books to read in order to score well on the SAT s, or parents looks for books for their children for the same reason, and finally, college students who want to plot themselves on the graph and compare what books they read and which they should have been reading.

4 3. The visualization is somewhat informally done, as such, it cannot be taken as a serious representation of data, but as more of a novelty. Additionally, the information contained in the visualization would most appeal to the above audiences. 4. The colors, visual style and imprecise layout suggest this to me, as well as the topic. 5. Color is used to denote the genre of each book. 6. The colors were chosen to stand out and be visually different from one another. Additionally, they were chosen to suggest the genre they represent. 7. The only shapes present are ovals. 8. There is no relationship, they were chosen for uniformity. 9. The emotional response varies on the reading preferences of the viewer as SAT scores are often seen an indicator of intelligence. The reading choices of the audience therefore correlate to their intelligence. 10. The image would be truthful given that the underlying data collection would be reliable. Certain genres of books seem to cluster at certain scores and some are strewn everywhere, implying there are some correlations, but they are not set in stone. 11. Does the data in this visualization correlate with other indicators of intelligence? 1. This is an example of a data visualization because it uses visual elements to compare the salaries and successes of MLB teams and draw correlations between the two. 2. The intended audience is primarily baseball fans. 3. The topic suggests people involved in baseball are interested, but the visualization is too simple to interest businessmen and so forth. It lacks truly meaningful information and would likely therefore only be of interest to baseball fans. 4. The simplicity of the visualization suggests this to me, as well as the subject matter. 5. Color is used to denote whether the team s position in the league is higher or lower than their total salary compared to the other teams, red if the team pays more than their position and blue if they pay less. 6. The color choices are distinct and often correlate with good and bad, as they are so used here. 7. The shapes are limited to simple lines. 8. The lines are different girths, which is used to indicate how big a discrepancy there is between a team s salary and the salaries of other teams.

5 9. The emotional response is based on who the audience supports in the MLB, being happy or sad based on their team s ration. Otherwise, the response would be mild surprise and where each of the teams are positioned. 10. The image does seem truthful, using very simple statistics to make its point, not leaving much room for doubt. 11. How do these statistics apply to the playoffs?