Author Archives: mattwizinsky

Data Visualization Process

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In his 2007 book Visualizing Data, Ben Fry breaks down the data visualization process into 7 common steps:

  1. Acquire: Obtain the data, whether from a file on a disk or a source over a network.
  2. Parse: Provide some structure for the data’s meaning, and order it into categories.
  3. Filter: Remove all but the data of interest.
  4. Mine: Apply methods from statistics or data mining as a way to discern patterns or place the data in mathematical context.
  5. Represent: Choose a basic visual model, and draw the data.
  6. Refine: Improve the basic representation to make it clearer, more meaningful,  and more visually engaging.
  7. Interact: Add methods for manipulating the data or controlling what features are visible.

However, this is not a linear process. It is iterative.

More on Ben Fry here

Color Modes / beyond RGB

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Hi all,

A quick note that may help with some of your sketches. As you know, RGB is the default color mode for Processing, but there are other modes. It looks like the HSB mode may be useful for some of you that are trying to control color using a single variable.

http://www.processing.org/reference/colorMode_.html
take a look here at how to change the color mode and also how you can change the range of values it will accept (for example, 0 to 100 instead of 0 to 255)

http://www.script-tutorials.com/what-is-a-color-model/
also look here at descriptions of different color models. Scroll down to HSB/ HSL for a description. For example, you can control the “Hue”  by changing a single variable while keeping Saturation and Brightness constant.

Here is a quick sketch I made using the HSB model and mouseX to determine the hue. I’ve set my range to “width” so that the full width of my window becomes the range to change the “H” value in my background color. Both “S” (saturation) and “B” (brightness) are set to “width” (full value, or all the way up). ::  HSB_Mouse_tutorial