3 ms·

I love new ways to express data. But, as I see animations like this I become a little anxious as I'd like to absorb the information, but if I look too closely i

by josho 10y ago

I love new ways to express data. But, as I see animations like this I become a little anxious as I'd like to absorb the information, but if I look too closely in one area then I risk missing a bigger pattern or trend. After watching, I'm convinced that a good old line chart would have been a better representation of the data. Perhaps with some added dynamic behaviour.

mjevans 10y ago
I really wanted to see both /where/ immigration was going /to/ and also where it was from. Like color mixing and destinations.
- irrational 10y ago
  Looks like they were all going to Kansas to me.
- freshyill 10y ago
  Yeah, it's not terribly helpful to see that they went to the US. Seeing this broken down by county would have been so much more interesting.
curiousgal 10y ago
http://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/ http://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/
freshyill 10y ago
At least it's not a YouTube video. I've seen some really cool videos that I wished were interactive, for things like territory changes during WWII.
- jlarocco 10y ago
  Unless I'm missing something, I don't see how this is any more interactive than a YouTube video.
mgalka 10y ago
It's a fair point. An interactive stacked area chart or a dot matrix would give you the freedom to focus in and to take away a lot more information about specific trends. My counter would be that there is more to data visualization than the quantity of information communicated. If that weren't the case, all data would be shown as numbers in spreadsheets. This data involves population counts spanning several orders of magnitude, for 72 countries over 20 time periods. It could be shown in a chart, but one that would require some patience to figure out. An animated map requires no reading of axis labels, no analysis of abstract lines or shapes. The meaning of everything is plainly evident. And for the minute it takes to watch, the information content is actually very high.

by josho 10y ago

mjevans 10y ago

I really wanted to see both /where/ immigration was going /to/ and also where it was from. Like color mixing and destinations.

irrational 10y ago
Looks like they were all going to Kansas to me.
freshyill 10y ago
Yeah, it's not terribly helpful to see that they went to the US. Seeing this broken down by county would have been so much more interesting.

curiousgal 10y ago

http://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/ http://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/

freshyill 10y ago

At least it's not a YouTube video. I've seen some really cool videos that I wished were interactive, for things like territory changes during WWII.

jlarocco 10y ago
Unless I'm missing something, I don't see how this is any more interactive than a YouTube video.

mgalka 10y ago

It's a fair point. An interactive stacked area chart or a dot matrix would give you the freedom to focus in and to take away a lot more information about specific trends. My counter would be that there is more to data visualization than the quantity of information communicated. If that weren't the case, all data would be shown as numbers in spreadsheets. This data involves population counts spanning several orders of magnitude, for 72 countries over 20 time periods. It could be shown in a chart, but one that would require some patience to figure out. An animated map requires no reading of axis labels, no analysis of abstract lines or shapes. The meaning of everything is plainly evident. And for the minute it takes to watch, the information content is actually very high.