data translation

{13/01/14 - 19/01/14}

For the Data Translation Project I was hesitated to choose what data to work with but in the end, I decided to use data based on an app on my phone I use to record my daily step intake for the past three weeks, the app called 'Moves' records my steps using GPS and internet connection to also track my journey and even the distance and duration for each day. I used the data during the Christmas Holidays because there were a reasonable amount of data to use but I was hesitated due to the lack of movement but I decided to still include it to show a contrast in my results.

Using inspiration from an artist called David McCandless, I wanted to use circles and colour to reflect the data in its simplest form. For me there was a lot of data to use and so I did have trouble to create my own outcome, however I thought of dividing it into three groups of amount of steps and date with distance and duration. I had this idea of three circles connected with a line to indicate that it is related, I used a bigger and darker colour to show the importance of the date taken place. The placement was done randomly and I wanted it to be contained and overlapping one another.

In my opinion I didn't like it much because it didn't look appealing and it doesn't reflect the data well, I got some feedback from Soofiya and she agreed it wasn't the best but I did this purely for research and so it was a start. She mention that I need to take into consideration of using size and colour to present the data visually and not choose colours because it is colourful. I totally agree and went on to change my approach to represent the data.

I further develop my design by using a main circle with three mini circles beside to create a data as a whole, I experimented with different styles and colour combinations.

I did this piece using coloured markers to give a strong bold appearance, it shows the same concept of linking each day together however I wanted to insert the data inside the circles on photoshop once I scanned it in, one reason I didn't do it and abandoned this idea because I did receive some feedback and the colour coding was very strange and said the previous idea was more clearer than this. The lines in the circle were meant to represent the heart rate but found that it can be misleading and also giving new data into the mix and so from this, I need to change the colour code and also use size to reflect the data better.

Instead of another piece done by coloured markers I went straight onto photoshop as its much easier to arrange and edit compared to by hand. This is my basic set up that I will be using, so green indicates it has a good amount of steps and is the biggest out of the three and so on, for the different data such as distance, place and duration, I used icons to visually present it in a simple way, I think this approach was successful.

This is the final outcome and I am pleased with it because it covers the elements of using colour, size and icons to simplify my data. I used three weeks worth of data hence why there is three lines of different data formed, I feel I really improved compared to my original plan and I am glad I received feedback from tutors and peers.