I was reading Trina Chiasson’s compiled online source book on Data + Design, and I just have to say it’s one of the coolest resources on the internet. I really enjoyed the final product because I know compiling all this information, and making it accessible and understandable to users can be a huge challenge. Within the past year, I’ve really become interested in how data visualization can make unsurmountable numbers of data digestible and surprisingly, enjoyable. It just looks so good. Whether it be through infographics or interactive data visualizations, is a great way to digest information in the 21st century.
As beautiful as this may look. Chiasson’s online book almost takes away the fascination shown in data visualization. What I mean is it is a lot of hard work. In my opinion, there are so many things that can go wrong when compiling and organizing the data. I have so much respect for people who go through the means of creating these visualizations.
One of the best uses I’ve found for data visualization has been through journalism. The New York Times is my favorite in terms of how it creates data visualizations that can apply to any reader, and they are also super interesting, too! The one I would like to talk about is their most popular data visualization of 2013: How Y’all, Youse, and You Guys Talk.
This data visualization map takes 350,000+ survey answers that were taken from August to October 2013, and creates a map for where different phrases are said within the United States. The interesting part is that you can take the 25 question quiz, which tells you from where your unique dialect derives from.
This NY Times visualization was based on the Harvard Dialect Survey conducted by Burt Vaux and Scott Golder, which actually began in 2002. After taking this quiz, and seeing how personalized it can be, I can only imagine the number of steps needed to be done in order to visualize this information. I wish that they had shared exactly how they created and organized the data collected instead of having a short “About this Quiz” section.
As someone who is becoming more interested in digital humanities, it really holds importance when sharing data visualizations. Though The New York Times is a journalistic source, we can assume that the information is true, but it’s always good to share that information with readers who want to know more.
Sources: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html
Data + Design: A Simple Introduction to Preparing and Visualizing Information, https://infoactive.co/data-design/titlepage01.html