One of my favorite data viz exercises is the "Dear Nightingale" challenge posed in each issue of the Data Visualization Society's Nightingale publication. The challenges succeed in the goal of getting me to think differently about data visualization, and bust out my colored paints and markers! I always go with my gut instincts and have fun.
I wrote about my first attempt at the "Paper and No Pencil" challenge here:
Seeing it published online and in print (above) was a pleasant surprise that motivated me to take on the next challenge.
The next Dear Nightingale challenge was to create a physical inspiration train. I had no idea what a physical inspiration train was, so I read the instructions carefully. I decided to choose items that I could see from sitting in my home office chair.
My items were:
Plain view but not noticed: Space Pen I have this sitting on my desk and use it every day! The brass matches and blends in with my other desk decor.
Interesting texture: Eye Cream The cream has a cold, smooth, and slippery texture that doesn't immediately soak into my skin and leaves an oily film.
Surprised to find: Crystal I was surprised to find that this crystal had fallen from the chain that hangs it in my sunny window.
When lining them up and noting their attributes, at first it was challenging but once I got warmed up the ideas were flowing! I narrowed it down to my top three attributes per item and determined my ranking of each attribute from 0-10. From there, I carefully sketched my 3-axis radar chart to visualize the strength of each attribute.
Space Pen:
10 Ability to write in space
6 Unique brass patina
1 Seinfeld episodes
Eye Cream:
4 Wrinkle reduction
8 Cost
8 Self-care treat
Yes, I turned around the brand name. Cl!n!qu3 is not paying me to promote their product for free on my career blog and it doesn't work that well for me. 4/10 in wrinkle reduction. But if anyone from Cl!n!qu3 is reading this and wants to send me a PR package...
Crystal:
8 Rainbow creation
4 Facets (in 10s)
10 Cost if it were a diamond (in $ MM)
Creating my physical inspiration train was so much fun! It taught me that there are many quantifiable attributes of data that might be getting ignored. All you have to do is take the time to consider them, looking beyond the obvious. It reminded me of a process that one of my favorite undergraduate liberal arts professors taught me: "dense facting." Dense facting is hard to describe, so it is best understood with an example.
Consider my eye cream. On the surface, it seems pretty simple. It's a cream that I apply around my eyes in the hope that my skin is moisturized, healthy, and smooth. When dense facting, you go beyond the obvious. You might consider the ingredients in the eye cream. Are they good for me or good for the environment? Why or why not have I taken the time to research each ingredient? Dense facting even deeper, you might ask why I feel the need to use eye cream at all. What societal standards of beauty or perspectives on aging prompt me to spend $80 on an eye cream? And so on and so forth...
Said another way, dense facting is considering anything and everything in as great, complete, and broad a context as possible. It gets intense, fast! That's its point! I had never thought about applying this concept and process to data before and the Dear Nightingale challenge prompted me to do so. What an aha moment!!!
This challenge also renewed my interest in radar charts. Personally, I find the funky angles, triangles, and spikes they produce visually interesting. They draw me in to look closer at a visualization, and I am excited to challenge myself to use them more in my work and personal projects.
Here is my entire physical inspiration train: "choo choo!"
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