Displaying data! A response…

Nowadays data displays are found all over the internet but as Edward Tefte mentions in chapter one of "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information", these do not catch the attention of the viewer just because they look “pretty”; rather, they are designed in a way that the data they contain is appealing and effective. From this aspect the viewer is engaged with the story that a graph might be telling.

A good Tufte draws is that one should be careful when using ranges since some of them might not actually make sense with others, just like the example he showed!

Anyways, the chapter presents data maps, time-series plots, space-time narratives and relational graphics. It was interesting to see the different styles that were applied for each type, even though they were categorized as the same graphic, at the same time you could differentiate one from another. So I guess it is here when we come in, and think about how the style we apply to a graphic can change its effect.

One of the points that I got from the reading was that not all of these different types apply to all the data sets. Census and those who concern the population in a country will cause more effect in a map than in a time-series, or some other sort since, like Tifte mentions, one can come up with different questions about the data plot over the map. Questions like, why is this section of the country more affected than some other, etc.

The graphic type that I found would cause more effect on viewers if having data sets that contain a connection with each other is the relational graphic! Through it one might be able to see the reasons of the increase of values in one data set by the information of the other one.

Every representation has the capability to tell a story, as Tifte seems to prove. Although those graphics types that contain more optical detail might cause more effect on the user. Nevertheless each graphics type is able to tell a story! One just needs to consider which one would cause a better representation of our data set! 

Chemical Hazardous-ness!

Hello there! For the first project of this class I had to select a data set to make an infographic.

I was browsing on toronto open's data sets source, and I found one that is very intriguing, at least for me.
Facilities record information on the use of different contaminants that are released on the making of products, or chemicals. With these data Toronto Public Health tries to  motivate the population to reduce the use of these chemical products because of the that they have upon the environment, and people's health.

I have already a couple of ideas on the design of my infographic. It might be tedious, and fun at the same time.

Citation:

Toronto Open. “Chemical Tracking (Chem Track)”, last modified June 30, 2011, accessed January 19, 2013, http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/open_data/open_data_item_details?vgnextoid=9fb5c3dccb8c8310VgnVCM1000003dd60f89RCRD&vgnextchannel=6e886aa8cc819210VgnVCM10000067d60f89RCRD.

My first Data Visualization in Processing!

So, for this week we had to create a graph using processing! For those who might not know what processing is, well it is an IDE that helps you create a visual interface. You can create and animate pretty much anything! Artist out there use it to create different pieces with the use of other techniques... Let's go straight to the graph then!

It is simple but shows the number of riders that traveled through the TTC services in 2009. Each bar represents a month of the year, which has a color mixed between green and red depending on the number of riders in that month, having the month of September to be the most busiest and august as the less busiest.

Hello Facs 3935!

The name is Mauricio Galvez, known by many as Mauri or Mauro. The reason I took this course was not solely because I need it towards my degree, I had some other choices; but because I wanted to get a glance to learn about the use of databases not only as a means of organization but also for art and other aspects. In terms of data visualization  well pretty much you can see it everywhere nowadays, even in sites like reddit or 9gag where people would create graphs representing any hot topics that might be going around. With data visualization we can see a representation of data that can be more understandable than having chunks of numbers or text. In terms of data art, well in my previous courses I have been introduced into different ways to transform data into something else than numbers! Data art, I think it's something of its own kind since it takes simple structures of information and converts them into abstract and/or complex systems (we could call), and also gives another perspective of the data that those systems represents in a way that makes consider different aspects of the topic being portrayed.