"Data visualization" is an important element of Myne.
Every game you play generates data (about you and your inner circle), and we have to enable you to see, and understand, that data: your data. And while seeing is easy, understanding is not. It is hard to make data easy to understand.
Take this "sunburst" diagram, which summarizes The Beatles' working schedule from 1963 to 1966 (www.mikemake.com/#72772/Charting-the-Beatles):
It's easy to see that it's hard to depict or digest, in a single diagram, 3 activities, 4 years, 4 variables, 12 months and 12 albums. The Beatles confronted the same challenge, simplifying the complex, in their music: "A Day in the Life" incorporates 2 songs, 4 stories, 23 instruments and 47 musicians:
Data visualization succeeds when it makes complex information 1) approachable, so users understand the information at-a-glance, and 2) insightful, so users discover something valuable they did not know before. Matt McKeon's visualization of Facebook's evolving privacy settings accomplishes both (www.mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy):>
On Myne, of course, data visualizations are not about The Beatles or Facebook. They are about you. And your inner circle. And while our visualizations eventually will be pretty, for now, our sole objective is to make them easy to understand. If we succeed, you will understand everything from how many words per minute you contribute to conversations with your parents . . .
. . . to the fact that, when your friend's friends vent to him, and he re-vents those vents to you . . .
. . . it is equivalent to your friends' friends, most of whom you do not know, venting directly to you.
I created those visualizations, and, as you can see and understand, I am not a designer. Our official visualizations are created by Gregory Mueller, who is a designer. Greg's visualizations look like this:
It must meet the definition of 'irony' that I was unafraid of clowns until I saw Greg's clown, which was designed to represent, not cause, a fear of clowns. I now suffer from a mild case of Coulrophobia (24%) and have prohibited Greg from designing visualizations for any phobias I do not currently have.
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Jeremy
