by Yiming Li
‘Data visualisation’ is, in my opinion, a topic that is both practical and design-oriented. This project was a bit of a challenge for me, but it also allowed me to continue to refine my technical and personal understanding of design methods.
Regarding the selection of topics for this project, I admit I took some detours. The good thing is that after going through and this process I realised that the main part of choosing a topic is whether or not it can provide me with valuable statistically usable data.
I found a statistic that is interesting to me in life. Most people who use streaming software (similar to Spotify) to listen to music may have noticed that at the end of each year, these software generate an exclusive statistic for users. These statistics include the total number of hours you’ve spent listening to songs using this software this year, the types of songs you’ve listened to, and your favourite artists.
I’m a regular music listener and Spotify has become my main way of listening to music over the last two years. So I think these stats are still informative for me. And luckily for me, I go through these stats every year and take a screenshot to keep them, so it was simple for me to make a table of stats about the kinds of songs I’ve listened to from 2019 to date.
The next part is how to visualise this data. I’m going to use some classic statistical charts such as pie charts for the visual presentation. But there is no doubt that the ordinary pie chart lacks design, in other words it’s ‘boring’. I started to look for something more visually interesting.
In a music media software I also use a lot, NeteaseMusic, there is a design I really like. They designed the player for each song with a simple interactive animation, like a vinyl record. Every time a song plays, the needle drops and the record starts spinning. This inspired me and I’m going to combine this design idea with my pie chart. I created some simple renderings of this part of the idea.
The next step is how to achieve this effect in P rocessing. After the previous workshop I got a general idea of the logic of how the software analyses the data. In the resources provided by my tutor I found some code that I could use. For example, how to create an arc. After a few tutorials I started to try it myself.
Regarding the code part, the basic idea is to first import the form into the software so that it can read the data, and at the same time do some basic settings such as colour and canvas size. Then let the software use the data it reads to calculate the angle of each arc. Each arc represents a different type of music. Finally, you can use forloop to draw them one by one. Finally, use the translate and rotate functions to make the record spin. For the stylus part of the record I used a simple picture material.
In this project, I used some of what I had learnt previously. This is where I feel I have improved. Due to time constraints this project still looks a bit like a half-baked project. I will take it further when I have the chance.
