The Beauty of Data

In class, we started off with random questions that were related to the video. It's called The Beauty of Data Visualization (click for video) by David McCandless. He talked about how data was easier to understand by visualizing. Most of his sources came from the media or online sources. What we see from these sources is what we believe in because of the controversy created by the news reporters. He states that we pay attention more with our eyes but we aren't as aware of it.

David starts off the video saying, "So, visualizing information, so... makes more sense, or it tells a story, or allows us to focus only on the information that's important." (1) He is saying that data is more legible to understand when it's graphically designed. Without visualizing any collected information, the data would be more of a hassle to follow through. If the data was organized in a simple but complex way, informational problems could be pinned down and resolved quickly. Anyone who is basically looking or studying the data would worry about the biggest problem first rather than the small one.

Throughout the video, he presents a variety of visuals that he created: the $Billion Dollar o-Gram, Mountains Out of Molehills, the break ups, our senses, the military budget, the balloon race, and lastly, the Volcano vs. Plane. The visuals that were amazing to me were the visuals about the break ups, the military budget, and the balloon race.

During the pre-discussion in class about the break ups, Cindy and I talked about holidays, spring, and summer. We said our reasons and chuckled a bit. While watching the video, we were shocked about how on target we were. David had quoted that it happens in Easter and two weeks before Christmas. (2) They had collected the information which was directly from Facebook updates. It was hilarious, because that's what I see the majority of the time.

The second remarkable visual was the military budget: who spends the most money, who has a bigger population, who has the most soldiers. In my opinion, we Americans don't recognize the other countries as much, because of our past relations with other nations. All the details are left out on the media.

The balloon race blew my mind. I liked how there was an interactive program. I've done animation before, and I thought it was cool. Many supplements are prescribed by doctors or advertisements found on television. I've never seen the majority of the supplements, but I think they were some type of home remedy or herbs/medication passed down through generations.

Overall, I agree with what David had to say, especially at the end, "So, visualizing information can give us a very quick solution to those kinds of problem." (4) He is saying that with the technology and programs we have today, it's better to create visuals based on collected information. Once the data is composed into a visual, you can make theories, suggestions, conclusions, and question why things are the way they are.