Audience Feedback

I showed my data visualisation to my target demographic and received feedback to improve my project. The feedback included slowing down the time in which the alcohol fact appeared and also slowing down the time in which the data appears. Additionally, I will edit the colour of the alcohol fact as I do not like the cranberry colour.

Development of Project-adding sound

I have adjusted the alcohol fact to a more comprehensible colour, the fact also fades in and out. I have also added sound so when a user clicks on a day of the week a sound of a drink being opened and poured is heard.

I found the sound on Youtube, it is named 'Soda Pouring Sound Effect.' I downloaded the sound using Youtube converter, then imported the sound from iTunes to Adobe Flash.

Bibliography

Crankdatbutcrack (2009) Sound Pouring Sound Effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g77tSvhTRiA (Accessed: 9 December 2012) 

Development of Project-adding the alcohol facts

The above shows one of the alcohol facts which will appear after the data has been shown. I hand wrote all the alcohol facts then scanned them into a computer, then adjusted the brightness and contrast of them in Photoshop. At the moment the fact appears after a click of the mouse, however, I want the fact to fade in and out. Additionally, I find the fact very hard to read in black so I will adjust the colour to something more apprehensible.

The alcohol facts are from drinkaware.co.uk, an example of a fact is 'Binge drinking can affect your mood and your memory.'

Bibliography

Bateman (2012) Alcohol and your health. Available from: http://www.drinkaware.co.uk/facts/factsheets/alcohol-and-your-health (Accessed 23 November 2012)

Development of Project-adding the data

The visualisation now shows the alcohol consumption the student consumed for Week one and two. For some days of the week  the student has consumed an astonishing amount over the recommended daily amount. I am hoping that the results of this graph will make other students assess how much they binge drink.
 I adjusted the opacity for the  the lines on the graph, as some of the lines overlap and thus it will be easier to compare the data. If you look closely at Sunday's image half of it has been cut off due to the layering of Saturday's image. This was a regular problem that occurred when creating the visualisation. Therefore, I had to re-open all the images in Photoshop separately and erase the background layer in order for all the images to overlap in Flash. I have yet to add sound to the project and the alcohol facts.

Development of Project

Here is a screenshot to demonstrate what the visualisation will look like when the user clicks on a day of the week.This will be repeated for each day of the week. The grey strip shows the recommended daily amount for women and the orange and blue strips show the how many units were consumed for Week 1 and 2. I used these complimentary colours as they are clear and easy to comprehend.

The first stages of my project

I have started to create my project in Adobe Flash. I hand drew the images then scanned them into a computer. I uploaded my scanned images into Photoshop, adjusting the brightness and contrast.
Below shows what my project looks like static, I need to create the buttons for each day of the week and add the alcohol facts.

Practicing in Adobe Flash

I have decided to use Adobe Flash instead of Processing as I find it will be easier to produce my data visualization. I have practiced creating buttons, but I am not sure how to make a button do an action yet. Thus, I will practice further.

Prototype of my data visualization

Marcin Ignac

Marcin Ignac is a Polish artist programmer and designer (Ignac, 2010). His piece named 'Money Vis' has been one of the main influences for my project (seen below), it shows Ignac’s expenditure over three years. I like the simplicity of the white background among the eclectic, bursts of colour used for the bars. The diverse colours, breaking up the bar, are used to categorise what things he spent his money on. This technique of using colour to separate data against a white background is very clear and effective and I may use this technique for my data visualization.

 

Practising Icons

I want to use drinks instead of bars for my bar graph, so I have practised drawing the drinks in Adobe Illustrator and by hand. I prefer the hand-drawn drinks as they are not as static and will bring character to the graph.
I have also decided to use Adobe Flash to create my data visualization as I believe this will be the easiest way to create the graph. Henceforth, I will practise with the software in the following weeks. 

Hand drawn Data Visualisation Proposal

 To the right shows a screen shot of the NHS Drinks Tracker app that allows one to record how many units of alcohol they drink per day. The bar graph is very clear and easy to understand, thus I will use it as a guideline for my data visualization. The below image is a hand-drawn sketch of what I want my data visualization to look like.I will use drinks instead of bars and add audio and colour.

Research into Alcohol Consumption

Whilst researching into alcohol consumption I came across this website named drinkaware.co.uk. The website aims to inform people about the effects of excessive drinking and advises consumers of how many units they are allowed a week. Below shows an animation they have created to inform viewers: 

This website is very helpful for my project. The website itself also includes many data visualisations which may help and inform me on how to construct my visualisation.

Initial Ideas/ Proposal

I have decided to do the Data Visualisation brief. I began by thinking about the audience with which I wish to engage with; I thought it would be good to engage with a demographic of which I am also apart of, thus my target demographic will be University Students aged between 19 and 21. I wanted a theme which all students could relate to and understand, so my immediate thoughts were ideas around drinking and alcohol. Binge drinking and going out are part of a routine for many students and it becomes part of their lifestyle; evidently this is an unhealthy lifestyle to adopt. I find the amount of alcohol students drink quite shocking and believe most students do not realise how much they drink or the detrimental affect alcohol can have on their health. Hence I will investigate the amount of alcohol consumed by a group of university aged between 19-21. 

MAX Practice and Physical Interaction

They key reading by Kwastek aimed to define different uses and forms of the word 'interactivity,' also discussing the use of interactivity as an art form. I noted a few important quotes from the essay to aid my understanding of interactivity and where it began:

'It was not until the beginning of the 1960's that computer science had developed to a stage that allowed for the idea of real-time interaction between men and computers.' (2008, p.17)

'1968 the computer mouse was developed...from then on human-computer interaction was established as a highly specialised and interdisciplinary field within computer science.' (2008, p.17)

'Within the arts, epistemological and aesthetic concepts play a seminal role in the artists realisation of their ideas and in what the participant may gain from the artwork.' (2008, p.22)

'The work may tell or narrate something, document or inform, visualize or sonify, it may be built to enhance perception or to offer a game, to monitor something or to serve as an instrument, to transform, to collect and store, to process or mediate.' (2008, p.23)

I think the last quote is a great guideline for thinking about the purpose of my work. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve and the experience you want your audience to gain, will always lead to a successful outcome. 

MAX Practice

After exploring MAX in class, I spent an hour of my own time playing around with the different buttons and tools. I find the software very difficult to use and feel much more inclined to use the 'Processing' software. In addition, as I have mentioned before I prefer the Data Visualisation brief and I don't think MAX would be an appropriate software to use for that brief. 

Bibliography

Kwastek, K. (2008) Interactivity- A Word In Process., C. Sonmerer et al. (Eds.): The Art & Sci. of Interface & Inter. Des, SCI 141, pp.15-26

Data Visualisation Practice

One of the briefs asks to examine a form of activity and construct in into an interactive visualisation. The visualisation involves 'Processing' a form of computer coding. At first glance the coding looks very complicated, but I prefer this brief more than the others, so I have read more around the subject of processing and data visualisations.

One of the key readings provided is named 'What is Code?' It stated that code developed in the 1940's to assist with work in the fields of science and engineering. (McWilliams and Reas 2010, p.21) We can see now how coding has developed from computer science to become an aesthetic experience, (McWilliams and Reas 2010, p.25) an exciting visual for audiences. I have noted a few inspirational quotes from the text which may influence my final project. One by Marshall McLuhen states 'today we're beginning to realise that the new media aren't just mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds of illusion, but new languages with new and unique powers of expression.' (McLuhen 1957, cited in McWilliams and Reas 2010 p.25) The other is, 'it is here that the computer ceases to be a tool and instead becomes a medium.' (McWilliams and Reas 2010, p.25)

Additional Reading

I did further reading into the book Data Flow: Visualizing Information Graphic Design 2. Once again I noted down some interesting and inspirational quotes to aid my final project, they are:

'Experiments- be they of a visual nature or in interactive design- are vital to thriving innovation, and since information visualization is just growing out of its baby shoes, we should embrace it.' (Bourguin, Ehmann and Klanten, 2010, p.6)

'We should be aware that the field of information visualization is far more than a creative playground. It is an indispensable instrument to cope with the massive amounts of data we are confronted with.'  (Bourguin, Ehmann and Klanten, 2010, p.8)

'Information can change people's behaviour.'  (Bourguin, Ehmann and Klanten, 2010, p.8)

'Making that information visible, easily understandable and enjoyable to use, is probably one of the most interesting challenges designers have ever encountered.'  (Bourguin, Ehmann and Klanten, 2010, p.8)

Practising with Processing

I began to practice processing by using Ben Fry's book Visualizing Data: Exploring and Explaining Data with the Processing Environment. (2007) Chapter Three, 'Mapping,' explains how to upload an image and plot points on a map using the Processing software.  To the left are screen shots of me following the instructions in the chapter. Despite it being quite hard to follow, I think I want to pursue the data visualisation brief; thus I will persevere with processing and practice more in the forthcoming weeks. 















Bibliography

Bourguin, N,. Ehmann, S., Klanten, R. (2010) Data Flow: Visualizing Information Graphic Design 2. Frankfurt: Die Gestalten Verlag

Fry, B. (2007) Visualizing Data: Exploring and Explaining Data with the Processing Environment. California: O'Reilly Media

McWilliams, C., Reas, C. (2010) Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press

Keri Smith

Our first homework task for Digital Media required us to be an explorer of the digital world. The idea of being an 'explorer' developed from Keri Smith's book 'How To Be An Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum' (2010). Before I completed the task I did extensive research about Keri Smith to accumulate my own ideas and opinions of her work and character. After reading through her blog and scanning through her books, I have concluded that she is an innovative and irrational thinker, who wishes to share her spontaneity and creativity with others through the medium of books and her blog. As a result of this I have invested in another one of Smith's books named, 'Wreck This Journal.' (2010) I am hoping the spontaneous activities which have been created in the book will stimulate exciting and original ideas for my final creative project and transform or adjust they way I look and think about things.

After completing a few of the tasks in the book, I felt I was more prepared and open-minded to complete the homework task.

Moreover, this is what I have recorded from my time of being an explorer of the digital world:

I began by typing 'digital media' into Google Chrome and clicking on the fifth link down which lead me to the digital media section on the Guardian website. I am a regular reader of the Guardian newspaper, so I assume this is why I was drawn to the link. After scrolling down the page I was introduced to an article named 'Tech Weekly Podcast: Gesture control techonologies.' (link is seen below.)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/audio/2012/sep/25/tech-weekly-podcast-gesture-tech-audio

The article contained a podcast which was presented by Aleks Krotoski; nine minutes into the podcast they began discussing gesture based control technology. They gave an example of raising one's hand infront of the television to adjust the volume. I found the podcast very interesting and an insight to the future of the digital world.

After listening about future techonology I wanted to explore something more visual. Thus I decided to explore data visualization, which is one of the digital media briefs. I typed 'data visualisation' into Google Chrome and was drawn to the link '50 Great Examples of Data Visualization.' (link is seen below.)

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/50-great-examples-of-data-visualization/

The website offers brief explanations of data visualization and examples. I was drawn to an example which visualized music tracks.

To the right is one of the examples on the web page. I love the clarity and simplicity of the visualization.













Bibliography

Chapman, C. (2012) 50 Great Examples of Data Visualization. Available from: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/50-great-examples-of-data-visualization/ (accessed 1 October 2012).

Krotoski, A. (2012) Tech Weekly Podcast: Gesture control techonologies. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/audio/2012/sep/25/tech-weekly-podcast-gesture-tech-audio/ (accessed 1 October 2012).

Smith, K. (2010) How To Be An Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum. New York: The Penguin Group

Smith, K. (2012) Keri Smith: This Is A Website. Available from: http://www.kerismith.com/blog/ (accessed: 29 September 2012).

Smith, K. (2010) Wreck This Journal. New York: The Penguin Group