Small Data, Big Impact
Dane Webster, Ivica Ico Bukvic · IEEE Multimedia · 2016
In a world of big data, sometimes having the right amount of small data at the right time can also pack a powerful punch. Tasked with creating a straightforward network visualization for a growing institution, the authors explored the organization's activities, which ultimately led to a radical refocusing and restructuring of the institution. Their small interdisciplinary team, combining skills in music composition, data visualization, and computational programing, produced the Orb--a data visualization project leveraging perceived affordances of 3D data representation to support human understanding of institutional networks. They present their multistage design process and lessons learned from this ongoing project.