Summer Project

• One Week Left for Personal Visualization Project

  August 25, 2008 to Summer Project  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  A quick announcement - I just wanted to remind everyone (and point out to new readers) that there's just one week left until the end of our summer project on personal visualization. I admittedly haven't done a very good job of motivating all of you to this, but if you'd like a chance to win, submit by the end of September 1. Eternal glory is at stake.

• Personal Data Visualization, More Details [PROJECT]

  July 2, 2008 to Summer Project  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  Earlier this month, I announced FlowingData's summer project for personal data visualization. It's been a lot of fun seeing what all of you have sent in; it's like tidbits out of your lives that you've decided to share with me. Really fun. Thank you everyone who's sent stuff so far.

  A Few More Details

  For those who haven't put in your entry yet, the deadline is September 1, 2008, so you've still got time. For those who already sent me something, remember, you can send me as many as you like. There's a $40 Amazon gift certificate at stake here - plus personal introspection and a new understanding of your behaviors and patterns.

  Your entry can be pictures, graphs, pencil sketches, Illustrator sketches, Flash or Processing projects, or whatever you like. The only real requirement is that it's about you or what's happening around you. I eagerly await your flowing data. Email me your entries with "summer project" in the subject line.

  Recent Reader Entries

  For some inspiration, here's a subset of the several recent reader entries that I've enjoyed so far.

  Tim has been keeping track of his aches and pains:
  

  Stacy and Joel recently had a get together (which sounded like a lot of fun), and everyone drew their connections to the others at the party:
  

  Kevin sent a snapshot of his profile from his in-development web application, BedPost. He's keeping track of um, well, you can just read it:
  

• Data Visualization Gets Personal – Putting Data Into Your Hands

  June 3, 2008 to Summer Project  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  Want to have some fun and win an Amazon gift certificate in the process? Read on.

  Personal data visualization has a huge advantage over other types of visualization. Personal visualization is about you, for you, and the data is from you. That's a ton of background information with very little effort. As Jeffrey Heer noted in Socializing Visualization, people tend to spend more time exploring data when they connect personally to what they are seeing.

  This Project's For You

  Running off this idea, this summer project is all about you - literally.

  Take a moment and think about the data "flowing" off of you. How much did you spend on coffee over the past month? How much sleep did you get yesterday or the past week? Did you gain or lose weight this year? Look through your past billing statements, your iTunes listening history, or your car's odometer.

  Do you have a certain number (or series of numbers) in your head now? What do you see?
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