datavisualisation & stories
DESCRIPTION
My presentation about (data)visualisations during Apps for Ghent 2012. My main goal was to emphasize the force of a story and the possible abuse of data.TRANSCRIPT
Hi, ik ben Andries - @dretio
This is my 10-minute
presentation during Apps
for Ghent 2012 (dutch)
www.appsforghent.be
Co-founder “Bits of Love”, een digitale studio.
I started showing some
visualisations from our
www.bitsoflove.be studio
... en “Small Town Heroes”.Wij maken 2nd screens apps voor TV.
Some more visualisations
from
www.smalltownheroes.be,
a second screen for TV
company.
Connecting the dots, my first love.
Play “connecting the dots”
with your children if you
want them to become
dataviz people ;)
Reading the stats, my second.
Strategy games are the
perfect blend of Project
Management, Statistics
and Visualisations with a
strategy sauce on top.
That’s why I love them all.
Stories, my third.
These days we forget
about the importance of
stories and storytelling.
Not the marketing lingo,
but the real everyday stuff.
Niet over ... vorm
With my limited time,
I skipped some important
topics like : crappy
infographics...
Niet over ... history
..The rich history of
visualisations..
Niet over ... psychology
..The physical & psycho
aspects around
visualisations..
Niet over ... the future of dataviz
.. and the future of
dataviz. This example is
located on the airport of
Zürich and is awesome.
Observation Deck B
But.. about using the force wiselyI really want to talk about
powerful visualisations by
means of storytelling &
knowledge of the subject.
De basis van een goeie visualisatie is een verhaal & kennis van het onderwerp
In my opinion this
visualisation won gold at
Malofiej12 because it uses
great story mechanics.
Wat doe je met 1000 pagina’s confidentiële documenten?
How do journalists react
to this “open data/
sources” thing?
Fastcompany Wikileaks visualisation
Some make a Wordle out
of 1000 pages with great
information, to conclude
the word “REPORTS” has
a lot of occurences...
NYT Wikileaks visualisation
Others make great stories
like this viz by NYT, based
on the same documents
Data without context has no meaning. Data needs a background, a narrative that sucks the user mentally into the world of the data.
Narratives are fundamental in human reasoning and give humans the ability to assign meaning to their experiences (Laurillard 1998; Dickey 2006). Applications, whether games or data visualizations, have to incorporate a narrative in order to reach its full potential. According to Brown and Cairns (2004), it is the narrative that separates an engagement-application from an immersion-application. The more immersion the higher amounts of time, effort and attention an user will invest in the application. By integrating a narrative, or letting the data make up a story, the user will be much more invested, emotionally and mentally. The narrative functions as the motor.
Here I make the link
between games & data
visualisations, and the
necessity of a narrative to
reach “full potential”
We moeten verhalen vertellen
Another great example by
The Guardian
We moeten verhalen vertellen
Another by NYT
Inspiratie : comics
These are very special
visualisations you can find
in the book “Zachte Atlas
van Nederland”. It’s
awesome & full of stories.
Inspiratie : ads
Even when they are fake,
movies & ads & arts can
help us to create great
visualisation stories.
Vertrouw niet altijd designers :)
Warning : do not always
trust designers. This
article in Smashing
Magazine was a bloody
shame. Basic charts are
good!
Heatmap : zee of land ?
It’s a dog in a park - I had
some fun here with the
audience :)
Vertrouw je ogen niet Warning : do not always
trust designers. These
guys multiplied the wrong
variables in their circles..
Vertrouw je ogen niet .. with this result.
I think we should learn to
see these mistakes.
De basis van een goeie visualisatie is een verhaal & kennis van het onderwerp
This is the famous
“Facebook break-ups”
example. I want to show the
importance of “contextual &
cultural knowledge” for
finding stories
De basis van een goeie visualisatie is een verhaal & kennis van het onderwerp
Now, including the western
holidays scheme.
10% werklozen met een uitkering 30% werklozen met een uitkering
Gebied A Gebied B
90%
70%
De “actieve” bevolking regio Gent - Eeklo
I ended with an example
how to manipulate “open
data” for a “political agenda”.
First we take 1 source to
show “the lazy region”.
10% werklozen met een uitkering 30% werklozen met een uitkering
Gebied A Gebied B
90%
70%
50%
40%
40% uitkeringen van het OCMW 10% uitkering van het OCMW
De “actieve” bevolking regio Gent - Eeklo
As “an expert”, I know we
have to look for additional
data (contextual
knowledge!). So I added a
second source to define
“active people”, shifting the
map.
10% werklozen met een uitkering 30% werklozen met een uitkering
Gebied A Gebied B
90%
70%
50%
40%
40% uitkeringen van het OCMW 10% uitkering van het OCMW
40%
100%
10% ouder dan 65 jaar 60% ouder dan 65 jaar
De “actieve” bevolking regio Gent - Eeklo
Another “expert” adds
another important fact :
people > 65 years have
different stats.
This means adding a 3rd
source for “active”, resulting
in a 3rd new map.
data => interpretatie => visualisatie/
kennis onderwerp verhaalSo my message for this
crowd of open data fans
was : try to find stories, and
handle your data with care.
(this slide should be more
complex :)
Laat ons dus zoeken naar :
JournalistenProducers
Experts in het vakVerhalenvertellers
Die van onze data verhalen maken,die veel impact hebben op onze samenleving
I think our Open Data
community needs more
storytellers, experts,
journalists,.. and less “app
makers” ;)
@dretio
www.bitsoflove.bewww.smalltownheroes.be
References
http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/10/word-clouds-considered-harmful/
http://www.albertoantoniazzi.com/
Belgische voorbeelden : Deredactie.be & DS - Bart De Neve
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east-protest-interactive-timeline
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/08/27/us/preparations-for-hurricane-irene-and-reports-of-damage.html
http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/
http://www.appsforghent.be