Visualizations
Representing sets of data in non-tabular form is the work of visualizations. Complex representations which convey meaning and value to the recipient in a pictorial form is much harder than it seems. The ability to not mis-represent or mis-lead the reader is paramount.
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City Swatches
City Swatches are quick and simple thumbnails of geographic locations, usually cities of similar latitudes and longitudes. Laying out all the city swatches gives a quick and interesting overview of any locations place in the larger scheme of the entire globe.
HLS World Map
There are several algorithms out there to programatically generate a color from text, but this takes it one step further and generates a color based on a physical location.
Five Simple Steps: Designing with Data
Over the last 6-7 months, I have been working on an introductory book. It is over 40,000 words on the topic of charts and graphs. It is more interesting that it sounds. I managed to sneak past the editor sections about crop-circles and the holy grail.
Geonames Maps
Using geonames’ free data set and a few quick lines of scripting, it was possible to convert a table of boring data in to a sovereign country. Even on a blank page, the borders are distinctly visible without the need to draw them explicitly.
Ada Lovelace Day: Florence Nightingale
March 24th is Ada Lovelace day with the intent of highlighting the achievements of women in technology. My contribution to this effort is an article about Florence Nightingale and her invention of visualizations and methods to improve the health and lives of everyone.