End of the line: Project B Rationale

My Production Project B takes the form of a data visualisation. Unfortunately I do not have the skills to build a functioning, active and algorithmic online application, so I have chosen to represent my master concept as a proposition or ‘blue print’ for a data visualisation.

My proposition can be viewed here:


Drug trends and Crime within Australia:

Annually information collected about drug trends within Australia by the IDRS (Illicit drug reporting System) and the EDRS (Ecstasy and Related drugs reporting system) and displayed upon the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (Found Here), UNSW’s website. So all information displayed within my data visualisation is attributed to them and their work. ABS was also referenced.

I chose to create a data visualisation on the grounds that they assist in the discovery of information and learning. Through undergoing this project I also have formed the belief that information, especially government founded and supported, would be better released and absorbed by the public if it were in the form of data visualisation. Essentially I believe in the power of the visual for conveying messages.

Research for this project entailed looking at multiple data visualisations and consequently the structure of my project mimics the style of similar information based works. I was largely influenced by Google Public Data who convey information with simplicity and style.

I chose to use this data because it is represents a problem that needs a solution. With drug related deaths and over doses become more prevalent among youth and adolescents, perhaps acknowledgement and understanding of this information, in simple and visual form, will end in action. I believe that a data visualisation is a more effective way of conveying data because of its immediacy (visually gained) and simplicity. Direct relations can be made by the user and it is over all more stimulating to interact with than the standard report.

I thought it would be important to include animated gif images in my proposal. This was not only for practicality reasons, cutting down the amount of images, but also to give a better demonstration and perception of how my project would function if it were to be actually built. The Dataviz was constructed in Photoshop CS2, using up to 180 layers that were effectively turned on and off as the image was saved and resaved to produce “frames” for animation. Each image was imported into Adobe Image ready as a frame and then exported as an animation.

Symbols are a prime informative of the work. They are utilized in both panels, but are predominantly featured within the location or map panel. I made this choice because it symbols are recognized as a convention of marking something not physically based on a map. The map functions to provide information upon mouse over. The user theoretically should gain specific knowledge and insight into a particular crime, which enhances the meaning of the symbol and benefits the knowledge of the user.

The ‘keys’ on the map are reflective of the crimes they represent, a universal perception. For example a hand signifies violence crimes whilst a car is the symbol of driving offences. The choices for the symbols were very deliberate based on what I believed would be audience assumption. I discovered upon viewing copious amounts of similar projects that it is important to work with association patterns for the benefit of both your audience and effectiveness of your data visualisation.

I chose to use circles to represent the drugs because of their inability for tessellation. I believe that the as circles they are not lost visually in a pattern which may occur with squares or triangles especially when colour similarity occurs.
Colour is also an important feature of the visualisation. In The map panel colour is used to distinguish the different drug types. This is essential for the “visual information gain” element of the project as looking at the map it is easy to derive patterns such as specific drug use in specific areas. I have discovered that colour is an important visual informative as you only have to look to understand, no thought or calculation required.

Similarly colour is used in the left panel. I specifically chose to make the ‘most available’ the colour red, because it is often associated with the notion of “more.” The green to red spectrum is also a common feature I noticed in Data visualisation when doing my research. Another example of use of the green to red spectrum is Data Viz. Similarly this project associates the colour red with “more”.

Another visual element I use in the left panel is size. The sizes of the circles correspond to the use of that drug for that year. The larger the circle the more widely used the drug. Again size association occurs, the visual message is received
I specifically chose to use the font’ Rockwell’ because of it’s on screen readability. I attempted to keep my work as simple and as minimalistic as possibly for the purpose of accessibility across a broader audience. Personally I believe that I maintained a level of simplicity that is easy for anyone to understand.
In terms of putting the thing online, although I don’t know all that much about algorithms, I am going to attempt to guess what such algorithm would be used in the construction of my project:


Left Panel:
Year="*"
Symbol="*"
Crime="*" = associated with side bar crimes, number perhaps 1-5
Colour="*"
Location="lat, long"
Mouse over="info"


Right Panel
Year="*"
Circle Class= "e.g. Heroin"
Width= "px"
Colour percentage="*" - colour gradiant given percentages, 100% = red.
Mouse over= "info"

*circles must touch

(I'm probably totally wrong.)

I believe that this data would be most beneficial to the public as a dataviz because it relates drug trends within Australia. Drug abuse is becoming one of our countries concerns especially in an age where parents are overly cautious. I believe that my project, if built, could inform parents about neighbourhood activity and ultimately influence their real estate choices. There is a possibility that it could also be utilized by the police force to monitor trending drug activity, and the prominence of certain drugs on the street which could ultimately determine their course of action.

Ultimately I imagine that the core design of my dataviz could be utilized to display a variety of relating information, such as Drug related fatalities in relation to drug use or the demographic that certain drugs effect. Alternately as the data visualisation could grow to encompass these options after research is conducted.

As corny as it sounds the data visualisation has the capacity to change the course of the world, frankly because it is so much more engaging the way we record information standard, black and white text reports. We seem to be fighting what nature has bred us to do, to absorb colour and shape and distinguish patterns. After this project I firmly believe that if we just coloured our worl a little more, we can strive for change.