#week_7

Being a frequent flyer myself, this data visualization about fatal commercial passenger plane incidents since 1993 particular drew my interest. I understand that flying is the safest way to travel, however deaths do still happen. It’s a sad ‘graph’ to watch and analyze, but I think it brought home its message. What initially drew my eye to this interactive data source was the colour and design. I really like the simplicity of the graph. It’s so easy to follow. The circles represent the fatal incidents in these aircrafts. The bigger the circle, the greater the death toll. But there’s more to it than that. You will notice that some circles are transparent while others are opaque. Opaque means that the cause of the incident is confirmed, while transparency means that the cause is not confirmed. Speaking of causes, you will notice five distinct and bright colours. Each colour is associated to a different cause. Yellow is human error, blue is weather-related, orange is mechanical, red is criminal, and grey is unknown. The colour makes it very easy to understand what happened to the aircraft. And the arrangement of the circles is just in numerical order via the dates in which it happened. You will notice in my screenshot there are two large red circles, these of course being the September 11th hijackings of 2001.  Visually, I think the simple design of this data works extremely well as it gets the message across without complications. I also enjoy the interactivity of this visual. I can select what cause to look at specifically, when the incident happened during the flight (such as mid-air, take-off, or grounded) and even sort which incidents were the deadliest, or the most recent. The data was meant to bring attention to these unfortunate events. The message is clear; air may be the safest to travel, but things happen and people get hurt. Does this visual scare me? To some extent yes, but it was meant to bring awareness. It’s upsetting to know all these lives are gone. It’s more upsetting knowing that a good number of these were preventable. 

Link: http://www.visualizing.org/visualizations/east-asias-urban-population-exposure-natural-hazards

By Jorge Gil

NFL Players: height and weight over time

By: Noah Veltman

This data visualization is eye catching and draws the viewer in with its use of colour and simplistic design. A legend clearly explains the colour variations which ties in neatly with the height and weight axis on either side. The title is bold and clear and identifies exactly who is being measured in this graph. It is an animated data visualization which is extremely effective in this case because it creates a “wow” factor at how dramatic the increase of size and height of NFL players has changed with time. Because the time aspect of this graph is so important, the year is not only featured at the bottom, but also in the bottom right corner of the graph in a large size to bring importance to the number. As the data points get into the 1990s they begin to branch into smaller groups which becomes confusing as to what is happening. To eliminate this confusion, the author addresses this along with two other points in short bold sentences below the graph. This allows a curious audience to be able to find out exactly what is going on in more depth without crowding the beauty of the data visualization itself.

Designer/Author: Noah Veltman