Being someone who loves maps and someone who uses public transportation every day, this feature on Microsoft intrigued me due to the level of interaction and the color differentiation between the bustling and non-bustling lanes. It gives additional details on roadwork and road closures thus helping me plan my route using public transport.
Being an avid photographer, I came across this feature on Google Maps which provides me a heat map of the locations I have clicked pictures. The higher the number of photos, the higher the heat intensity color.
Being diagnosed with PCOS made me realize the importance of tracking my health and my irregular periods. I have been using this tracker for the last 5 years, It gives me data and timeframes of my period cycle, its regularity, predictions and history, and the ovulation, and fertility window.
PCOS has got me to be more health-conscious, which leads me to track my steps as a part of my workout routine. Although, since I don’t own a smartwatch, it tends to be less accurate.
By now you may have realized that I love tracking activities in my life and that got me interested to track my overall mood of the day. I wanted to inculcate certain habits and track them. Since I journal every day, I color-coded my day based on how it went. For the habits, I added a cross mark on the days that I performed the habit.
Recently I noticed that began spending a lot more time on my phone. In order to productively use my time and not get distracted, I use the digital well-being feature on my phone, to track screen time, notifications, and the number of unlocks to consciously reduce phone usage.
I never owned a credit card until November 2021. The concept was new to me and I realized it wasn’t effective to swipe the card as and when I please. This analyzer helps me visualize my expenditures and allows me to plan my finances judiciously.
Having been required to apply to many companies, I required a structured mechanism to track my applications and not miss deadlines. Notion allowed me to have multiple views, sorts, and filters to view and create a database that I could refer to when needed.
Applying for summer internships made me anxious about how recruiters would interact with my portfolio and if it even reached the right audience. Using WordPress, I could track the stats and the reach based on posts.
I used to sell artwork through my online art store that I hosted on Instagram. The creator/business mode on Instagram allows me to track my content and how it fares with the audience.
I selected these three visualizations because they provide 3 very distinct data in circular graph forms. It shows how it is possible to visualize disparate data in the same shape.
I performed my analysis by understanding the data and value encoding. Additionally, I also differentiated the chart types used in the Application. I tried to answer the below questions for each of the selected visualizations.
What is the goal of this visualization?
How is the data represented—its visual encoding, graphical marks, color, etc.?
What are some key weaknesses of this visualization and why?
What are some key strengths of this visualization and why?
What is the goal of this visualization?
This visualization provides detailed views of the user’s period cycle in the past.
How is the data represented—its visual encoding, graphical marks, color, etc.?
The complete cycle is depicted through a circular line graph of varying colors to depict the 3 different data relevant to period days, fertility window, and ovulation day.
What are some key strengths of this visualization and why?
The use of different sizes to depict ovulation days and not include yet another color just to display one value.
What are some key weaknesses of this visualization and why?
If the cycle is irregular and the total duration is longer, for eg. >60 days, it becomes difficult to visualize when and where the fertility window is.
What is the goal of this visualization?
This visualization provides a detailed graphical view of the user’s credit card expenses.
How is the data represented—its visual encoding, graphical marks, color, etc.?
The radial graph allows the user to interact with each category as the user hovers over them They are color-coded according to categories and the contents within a category are further color-coded in the same color range.
What are some key strengths of this visualization and why?
The use of a similar color range to indicate subcategories within a higher color range helps the user visualize the radial graph with ease.
The interactive elements of the graph.
What are some key weaknesses of this visualization and why?
The categorization of the subcategories may not be consistent with the user’s ability to categorize. For example, Target in my opinion is a supermarket but it is considered merchandise. There is no possibility to reorganize.
What is the goal of this visualization?
This visualization provides Fitness data related to steps, and speed of exercise on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
How is the data represented—its visual encoding, graphical marks, color, etc.?
The size of the circle on each day in the monthly view is proportional to the number of steps/heart points/energy expended on that day.
What are some key strengths of this visualization and why?
The use of varied sizes indicating the increase/decrease in the activity.
The minimal use of colors avoids confusion.
The app uses color-blind/low vision-sensitive colors which makes it accessible.
What are some key weaknesses of this visualization and why?
There is no Yearly view, which means if the user wants to view data from the history, they have to go through many taps.
I learned that….
I had previously not considered…
I was surprised that…
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