5 ms·

The Weight of Rain

458 points by ams1 13y ago

mutagen 13y ago
If the only thing you’re doing is coming up with a single number, then you’re doing arithmetic, not visualization. ... And I think that the goal of visualization is not finding elaborate ways to encode information. I try to encode as little as possible. ... But to me this feels like imposing a design on the data, and drawing attention to the design more than the data. The whole thing is great, I'm glad I stuck with it past the first few images to see where he's going. These bits stuck out though and his work is so often things I wish I had thought of.
- ohashi 13y ago
  It really is hard dealing with data and the amount of thought this guy has put into it and his approach is really excellent.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
wmeredith 13y ago
I wish I had more than one upvote to give to this talk. I was giddy half way through it and my jaw was hanging open by the end of it. What an inspiring look at the design process. I'm an interaction designer and this REALLY spoke to me.
Gracana 13y ago
Fantastically interesting.
- Ryel 13y ago
  ++1
- carrotsarm 13y ago
  The best way to say that is by simply up-voting. HN would become a much better place if the comments are more insightful and represent the perspective of the person commenting :)
  - Gracana 13y ago
    Good grief. I'm at a loss for words. You have the audacity to call me out for failing to meet your expectation of praise!? Is the simple expression of my feelings not even worth skimming over at the bottom of a page? If you want to make HN a better place, why not try to lead discussions? Certainly that would be a better technique than going around telling people that their silence would improve the community. People have said a lot of things to me online, but I don't think I've ever felt as insulted as I do right now.
reneherse 13y ago
Process and presentation at the level of... poetry.
- ableal 13y ago
  Yes, it also struck me that way. As an offtopic aside, the Mars day/year slide ( http://style.org/visualized/images/weightofrain_34.jpg http://style.org/visualized/images/weightofrain_34.jpg ) made me think we should really build a "second home" (or vacation house, or mountain cabin). Perhaps mountain cabin is the appropriate metaphor. It's another 70 million km up the Sun's gravity well. If we take solar energy supply as a feasibility criterion, it's 43% of what we get on Earth. (Data courtesy of http://idahoptv.org/ntti/nttilessons/lessons2000/lau1.html http://idahoptv.org/ntti/nttilessons/lessons2000/lau1.html )
- omilu 13y ago
  the gif of the rover driving is fantastic
K2h 13y ago
This is a great presentation on how to effectively communicate data and it is not just putting raw data on a slide. it takes time and major creativity to communicate. Read the presentation for another reason, a good example of a catchy, relevant intro tied to a closing.... something that makes us all better communicators.
mdda 13y ago
One thing that surprised me was the statement about a sun that would soon engulf the nearby planet - and being so relatively large that the planet was 'more than half' in sunlight (~ the sun's disc shines 'around the corners'). But isn't that true on earth too (to a much smaller degree)? As long as the sun's radius is larger than the earth, then sunlight will fall simultaneously on more than a half of the earth's surface, no?
- lostlogin 13y ago
  No, because of distance. I'm sure there is a simple equation that shows this but I don't know it. Presumably most stars we see are larger than earth, yet we can only just see them and they are basically point sources.
  - baddox 13y ago
    There is no distance at which a larger spherical star won't shine on over 50% of a smaller sphere's surface area. That includes distant stars and Earth. Here's a rough diagram I sketched up in Autodesk Inventor: http://i.imgur.com/u9Xjqsa.png http://i.imgur.com/u9Xjqsa.png We have a "planet" with diameter 0.275 unit and a "star" with diameter 1.0 unit. If their centers are 1.0 unit apart, then you can clearly see the extra part of the planet's circumference that is covered by the star's light. If you increase their distance to 10 units, the two lines connecting the circles get closer and closer to becoming parallel, but they will never become parallel because the star is larger than the planet.
    - lostlogin 13y ago
      I stand corrected.
    - vacri 13y ago
      This being said, the earth isn't a perfect sphere. There will be a distance where the topology of the earth will block distant stars from shining on >50% of the planet... for some of the day.
- 13y ago
martindale 13y ago
Every so often, you follow a link that you'd thought not worth the click. Therein you discover just how wrong one can be.
tptacek 13y ago
Everything else at style.org is equally amazing. Corum was, IIRC, a student of Tufte's. Here's an especially great pair: http://style.org/unladenswallow/ http://style.org/unladenswallow/ http://style.org/strouhalflight/ http://style.org/strouhalflight/
nitrogen 13y ago
Although the graphics are excellent, the site's hijacking of the left and right arrow keys is not appreciated.
rwhitman 13y ago
I don't have a comment smart enough for HN to express how cool I think this is. I want to print it out and thumbtack it to my wall like I'm 14
ToastyMallows 13y ago
I really like the layout of this talk. I hate when people just link to the powerpoint of a talk and expect everyone to follow along like they were there, with no narration.

458 points by ams1 13y ago

If the only thing you’re doing is coming up with a single number, then you’re doing arithmetic, not visualization. ... And I think that the goal of visualization is not finding elaborate ways to encode information. I try to encode as little as possible. ... But to me this feels like imposing a design on the data, and drawing attention to the design more than the data. The whole thing is great, I'm glad I stuck with it past the first few images to see where he's going. These bits stuck out though and his work is so often things I wish I had thought of.

ohashi 13y ago
It really is hard dealing with data and the amount of thought this guy has put into it and his approach is really excellent.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

wmeredith 13y ago

I wish I had more than one upvote to give to this talk. I was giddy half way through it and my jaw was hanging open by the end of it. What an inspiring look at the design process. I'm an interaction designer and this REALLY spoke to me.

Gracana 13y ago

Fantastically interesting.

Ryel 13y ago
++1
carrotsarm 13y ago
The best way to say that is by simply up-voting. HN would become a much better place if the comments are more insightful and represent the perspective of the person commenting :)
- Gracana 13y ago
  Good grief. I'm at a loss for words. You have the audacity to call me out for failing to meet your expectation of praise!? Is the simple expression of my feelings not even worth skimming over at the bottom of a page? If you want to make HN a better place, why not try to lead discussions? Certainly that would be a better technique than going around telling people that their silence would improve the community. People have said a lot of things to me online, but I don't think I've ever felt as insulted as I do right now.

reneherse 13y ago

Process and presentation at the level of... poetry.

ableal 13y ago
Yes, it also struck me that way. As an offtopic aside, the Mars day/year slide ( http://style.org/visualized/images/weightofrain_34.jpg http://style.org/visualized/images/weightofrain_34.jpg ) made me think we should really build a "second home" (or vacation house, or mountain cabin). Perhaps mountain cabin is the appropriate metaphor. It's another 70 million km up the Sun's gravity well. If we take solar energy supply as a feasibility criterion, it's 43% of what we get on Earth. (Data courtesy of http://idahoptv.org/ntti/nttilessons/lessons2000/lau1.html http://idahoptv.org/ntti/nttilessons/lessons2000/lau1.html )
omilu 13y ago
the gif of the rover driving is fantastic

K2h 13y ago

This is a great presentation on how to effectively communicate data and it is not just putting raw data on a slide. it takes time and major creativity to communicate. Read the presentation for another reason, a good example of a catchy, relevant intro tied to a closing.... something that makes us all better communicators.

mdda 13y ago

One thing that surprised me was the statement about a sun that would soon engulf the nearby planet - and being so relatively large that the planet was 'more than half' in sunlight (~ the sun's disc shines 'around the corners'). But isn't that true on earth too (to a much smaller degree)? As long as the sun's radius is larger than the earth, then sunlight will fall simultaneously on more than a half of the earth's surface, no?

lostlogin 13y ago
No, because of distance. I'm sure there is a simple equation that shows this but I don't know it. Presumably most stars we see are larger than earth, yet we can only just see them and they are basically point sources.
- baddox 13y ago
  There is no distance at which a larger spherical star won't shine on over 50% of a smaller sphere's surface area. That includes distant stars and Earth. Here's a rough diagram I sketched up in Autodesk Inventor: http://i.imgur.com/u9Xjqsa.png http://i.imgur.com/u9Xjqsa.png We have a "planet" with diameter 0.275 unit and a "star" with diameter 1.0 unit. If their centers are 1.0 unit apart, then you can clearly see the extra part of the planet's circumference that is covered by the star's light. If you increase their distance to 10 units, the two lines connecting the circles get closer and closer to becoming parallel, but they will never become parallel because the star is larger than the planet.
  - lostlogin 13y ago
    I stand corrected.
  - vacri 13y ago
    This being said, the earth isn't a perfect sphere. There will be a distance where the topology of the earth will block distant stars from shining on >50% of the planet... for some of the day.
13y ago

martindale 13y ago

Every so often, you follow a link that you'd thought not worth the click. Therein you discover just how wrong one can be.

tptacek 13y ago

Everything else at style.org is equally amazing. Corum was, IIRC, a student of Tufte's. Here's an especially great pair: http://style.org/unladenswallow/ http://style.org/unladenswallow/ http://style.org/strouhalflight/ http://style.org/strouhalflight/

nitrogen 13y ago

Although the graphics are excellent, the site's hijacking of the left and right arrow keys is not appreciated.

rwhitman 13y ago

I don't have a comment smart enough for HN to express how cool I think this is. I want to print it out and thumbtack it to my wall like I'm 14

ToastyMallows 13y ago

I really like the layout of this talk. I hate when people just link to the powerpoint of a talk and expect everyone to follow along like they were there, with no narration.