I'm going to explore the animated data visualization work of John Nelson
to see if it is anything more than a captivating GIF. I found his work, “A
Breathing Earth”, on
the National Geographic website a while back and it has stuck
with me due to its humbling perspective of earth.
From the stills I captured from Mr. Nelsons GIF, you can see how
temperature changes on our planet take place as the ice conquers and retreats
over the land, over and over again. It gives us a global perspective of our
planet, as it is seen by the stars from outer space.
His animated planet is simple and clearly communicates temperatures
changes, but the success of his visualization is that it very clearly communicates
those changes as the result of the changing seasons and not another temperature phenomenon.
As I will explain, the true success lays in the way that Mr. Nelson put
together the three main components part (see below) of his GIF.
Three component parts (left to right): title, animated timeline, and the animated planet.
In order to investigate the success of the work I did a little experiment
on myself and nine others (10). Here is what I learned:
1) Without the title and the timeline, the planet component
alone supported one view predominantly, global warming. Eight people assumed doom
and gloom to be the subject, except for two who thought it was seasonal change.
Without more context provided by the other two components the GIF seems to keep
replaying over and over, showing a single event not a continuum.
2) Without the title, but with the timeline only, nine people now understood the GIF as communicating the impact
global warming. The problem lays in the fact that the timeline is a line. For most, the line seemed to represent a linear activity of
the planet- what the arctic will look like over time due to the impact of
rising temperatures. The use of a linear timeline is not what a person
instinctively imagines when thinking of cycles or seasons. Perhaps if it was a
circular graphic, or a circular graphic with quadrants (for an audience in
North America as we could correlate it to the four seasons), one might more
instinctively think of an ongoing cycle or seasons.
3) Without the timeline, but with the title, the graphic
really just seemed to be about the optical illusion of the planet breathing. Here
the changing ice levels seemed incidental.
However, When all the three parts of the GIF were all present, everyone (aside
from one person) understood it to represent seasonal changes. When put together
the three parts rely on each other to communicate this intent. The name
correlates the project to a natural process we can understand as ongoing, the timeline cements that repletion, while showing the physical changes to the
earth is how the viewer can be sure that this is the process of seasonal change.
I'm going to explore the animated data visualization work of John Nelson to see if it is anything more than a captivating GIF. I found his work, “A Breathing Earth”, on the National Geographic website a while back and it has stuck with me due to its humbling perspective of earth.
Very informative breakdown of the GIF of earth! I agree, all components of information are necessary for the purpose of the graphic to be clear. I wonder if there is away for that information to be represented graphically or in a manner that directly connects it with the image shown? I do like the graphic though, it is very eye catching!
ReplyDeleteGreat explanation of the earth. Like Heather, I agree with your claim that it simply looks like breathing without the 3 components you mentioned. I wonder if this could have been made as a bar graph. Although it may not be as eye catching, it could be easier to analyze.
ReplyDeleteGreat explanation of the earth. Like Heather, I agree with your claim that it simply looks like breathing without the 3 components you mentioned. I wonder if this could have been made as a bar graph. Although it may not be as eye catching, it could be easier to analyze.
ReplyDeleteA very beautiful visualization. The map clearly conveys the changes in the earth's seasonal changes in temperature through a full annual cycle. Item #2 ought to be more prominently and clearly identified as to what its function serve.
ReplyDeleteHello Allison
ReplyDeleteA breathing explanation of an animated data visualisation indeed. You nailed it in every way. I like how you conducted an experiment on yourself and nine others in order to review the success of the work. Great work.
This is a really cool visualization! I really like how it shows the dramatic changes of the earth. The only thing I would change is the actual data - I would have liked perhaps to see some numbers or a timeline with the dates. (Although I can't see what the writing near the top says.) Great job!
ReplyDeleteAllison I loved your data visualization choice for this assignment, as its quite unique and different compared to the one I chose. I loved how your conducted an experiment to bring forth a scientific approach in figuring the usefulness of the graph. I agree with the others that if there were some statistical component it mightve made it a tad clearer at first glance. Good stuff!
ReplyDelete