Data Visualisation Project Ideas/Help

[Benny Gordon]

Hello,

I am very new to D3 but I have decided to do data visualisation for my final year Applied Computing project. I am just reaching out to you more knowledgeable people to ask for help as to where I start my research and what type of artefact I could develop once my data visualisation research is complete. I have a decent grasp on JavaScript but I do not have a real strong idea as of yet on what kind of artefact I am going to produce in my second semester. Thank you all in advance for any help given.

Benny Gordon 

[Danne Woo]

Hi Benny,

I would suggest looking at artists and data representation designers like Jer Thorp, Alberto Cairo, Ben Rubin, Mark Hansen, Edward Tufte, Casey Reas and Ben Fry (just to name a few). You really need to first understand your data before you can even consider how you want to visualize it, also maybe "visualizing" isnt the best option. Dont forget about all of our other senses. Good luck, cheers,

Danne Woo

325 Clinton Ave., Apt. 8E

Brooklyn, NY 11205

267-825-4797

dannewoo.com

itp.dannewoo.com

technicallydesigned.com

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[Benny Gordon]

Hello Danne,

thanks for the reply and I will follow your advice. Data visualisation is the technology i have chosen to study and more specifically D3, my lecturer has instructed me that I first have to research data visualisation before I decide which data I will be manipulating. This is frustrating but I must follow the rules. I am completely open to what data I will eventually be visualising.

Thanks

[Ian Johnson]

you should study this http://bost.ocks.org/mike/

:)

in my opinion data visualization is a communication discipline, and depends a lot on the medium. i feel that interactivity is not being used nearly as much as it could be in communicating complex patterns in data. if I were to research data visualization I would research how interactivity is being used (or starting to be used) and look at Bret Victor's work: worrydream.com on the subject.

--
Ian Johnson - 周彦

http://enja.org

[Kai Chang]

This is a wealth of information on the process of creating visualizations for publication: http://kpq.github.io/chartsnthings/

A good book is "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" by Edward Tufte.

[Chris Viau]

If you just need to see what's possible with D3, here are a couple of thousands examples: 

https://github.com/mbostock/d3/wiki/Gallery

http://christopheviau.com/d3list/gallery.html

ChrisV

[Benny Gordon]

Hello all,

thanks very much for the responses. I am incredibly grateful. The information and advice I have received has been fantastic. Keep up the good work guys.

Thanks again,

Benny Gordon

[Benny Gordon]

Hello guys,

ok now I have a new problem. My research is going well. With a lot of thanks due to your help. Now I need to decide what type of data I will be visualising. What will the characteristics of the data that I am working with be? This is a major part of my project and I would really appreciate any input that anyone could give.

Thanks again,

Benny Gordon

[Chris Viau]

So your first problem was to find a visualization type and your second is to find what data to use? What part of the data visualization process do you already own? Do you have a subject or something to start with?

ChrisV

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[Benny Gordon]

Hi Chris,

       my initial idea was to break down the various aspects of a horse race and the data that each horse carries into a visual depiction of that data. My supervisor did not like this idea. Now I do not know where to begin.

[Chris Viau]

One nice way to find data is with Google Public Data. You could just start with a subject you would like to talk about and search on census websites or just searching for the keyword "dataset".

ChrisV

[Chris Viau]

You know, from what I can understand, it's not your fault at all and I would be lost too. The data visualization process usually starts with a story or with finding a story by exploring a specific dataset. Starting with finding a visualization type, then the data to go with it is a weird academic exercise (I teach visualization, I can criticize ;) ). 

If I were you, I would step back and just ask myself what information do I want to share. Personally, I would probably choose some ecology data, but sports, finance, physics, are full of interesting things to say. Both data and visualization are just tools. The only important thing is information. Data is raw and boring. Information is extracting a story from data and visualization is finding a way to bring abstract data to life, to shape and communicate. The best visualization for the task is often a very simple one, like a bar chart or a time series. 

I like your horse race idea, but I wonder what data could be used, physics, stats?

ChrisV

[Dow Street]

Hi Benny,

This paper by Ben Fry might be helpful - it introduces one process for taking raw data and constructing a visualization that exposes ‘information’ of interest.

http://benfry.com/phd/dissertation-110323c.pdf

Don’t worry about the complexity in some of these examples, just focus on the kinds of decisions that you’ll need to make when creating a visualization. What aspect of the data do you want to highlight to the viewer, and/or what question(s) do you want the visualization to answer? How do you map your raw data to visual elements in order to best tell this story? Is there an existing type of graph that works well (generally yes), or perhaps one or more graphs of the same dataset that can be used together?

Anyway, hope that helps...

R,
Dow

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[matthew lange]

Hi Benny,
If you are interested in a d3 force directed graph, updated from a data stream, I have some interesting genomic data you can use, and would be happy to walk you through its visual  interpretation, etc.
Best,
~mc

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[Kai Chang]

A couple ideas using US public data:

The Dept. of Veterans Affairs released gravesite data for each state on Data.gov. When I looked at it, I noticed the data were plagued with data quality issues. One could use visualization to characterize the various problems in this dataset to create a more accurate directory of veteran gravesites.

http://catalog.data.gov/dataset?q=gravesites

The MSHA Accident Injuries Dataset is quite rich. It documents physical harm due to mining accidents.

http://www.msha.gov/OpenGovernmentData/OGIMSHA.asp

The USDA nutrient database is a multidimensional dataset that everyone can relate to. I reorganized the nutrient quantities into a CSV that's easy to get started with.

http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/

https://gist.github.com/syntagmatic/3267988

http://bl.ocks.org/syntagmatic/raw/3150059/

[Benny Gordon]

Hi All,

I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to you all for your input. Your thoughts and suggestions have been invaluable. I am now in a better place in my studies mostly thanks to this group. Any further input would be greatly welcomed.

Thanks,

Benny Gordon

bennyg...@gmail.com

[Chris Viau]

What ideas do you have? I can continue helping if you want.

ChrisV

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[Benny Gordon]

Hello All,

has anybody any idea where I can get free live feeds of good quality data, such as weather but preferably flight data. This is where I am being advised to concentrate on.

Thanks, 

Benny Gordon

[Benny Gordon]

Hello Everyone,

***UPDATE***

I have decided to work with live weather data as it is freely available, is updated regularly and gives me a good amount of freedom to manipulate it in ways that I can. Any advice on how or what I should create using this data would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the delayed reply. I have a great deal of work on currently and project had to take a back seat for a few days. 

I really appreciate all the help and advice that has been offered and now I feel I am on a strong track. Thanks again everyone.

Kinds Regards,

Benny Gordon

bennyg...@gmail.com

[sadi hassan]

Hi Benny Gordon,

I think, you can work on Earthquake data. It will be helpful for many people.

Sadi

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