Understanding Data - Data Points: Visualization That Means Something - page 350

The connection between data and what it represents is key to visualization
that means something. It is key to thoughtful data analysis. It is key to a deeper
understanding of your data. Computers do a bulk of the work to turn numbers
into shapes and colors, but you must make the connection between data and real
life, so that you or the people you make graphics for extract something of value.
This connection is sometimes hard to see when you look at data on a large scale
for thousands of strangers, but it's more obvious when you look at data for an
individual. You can almost relate to that person, even if you've never met him
or her. For example, Portland-based developer Aaron Parecki used his phone to
collect 2.5 million GPS points over 32 years between 2008 and 2012, about one
point every 2 to 6 seconds. Figure 1-5 is a map of these points, colored by year.
As you'd expect, the map shows a grid of roads and areas where Parecki fre-
quented that are colored more brightly than others. His housing changed a
few times, and you can see his travel patterns change over the years. Between
2008 and 2010, shown in blue, travel appears more dispersed, and by 2012,
in yellow, Parecki seems to stay in a couple of tighter pockets. Without more
context it is hard to say anything more because all you see is location, but
to Parecki the data is more personal (like the single wedding photo is to me).
It's the footprint of more than 3 years in a city, and because he has access to
the raw logs, which have time attached to them, he could also make better
decisions based on data, like when he should leave for work.
What if there were more information attached to personal time and location
data, though? What if along with where you were, you also took notes during
or after about what was going on at some given time? This is what artist Tim
Clark did between 2010 and 2011 for his project Atlas of the Habitual . Like
Parecki, Clark recorded his location for 200 days with a GPS-enabled device,
which spanned approximately 2,000 miles in Bennington, Vermont. Clark then
looked back on his location data and labeled specific trips, people he spent
time with, and broke it down by time of year.
As shown in Figure 1-6, the atlas, with clickable categorizations and time frames,
shows a 200-day footprint that reads like a personal journal. Select “Running
errands” and the note reads, “Doing the everyday things from running to the
grocery store all the way to driving 30 miles to the only bike shop in southern
Vermont opened on Sundays.” The traces stay around town, with the exception
of two long ones that venture out.
There is one entry titled “Reliving the breakup,” and Clark writes, “A long-term
girlfriend and I broke up immediately before I moved. These are the times
that I had a real difficult time coming to terms that I had to move on.” Two
small paths, one within the city limits and one outside, appear, and the data
suddenly feels incredibly personal.