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Data Visualization Inspirations

Today's GIF - the best explanation of π I have seen:


Circle perimeter

Watch it a few times. Raise your hand if you can explain π using this gif.

So, your homework was about doing a class/individual Feltron project... a TMS-o-tron if you will. I guess mine would be a Samtron. I hope you all come up with good names for your projects.

In fact, let's talk about the project. We can put ideas on the whiteboard and see if we can come up with 5 individual data points to track and 5 data points to track as a class. I still vote for poops. But before we talk about that, let's get inspired:

I want to show you some more inspiring examples, and talk about reporting tools. Tools as in, "How are you going to collect this data about yourself?" You will have to report it a few times a day... what can you use?


  1. A notebook made of paper
    • Pros: easy to set up, no technology needed, no battery that can die, easy to make your own questions
    • Cons: easily lost; if lost, data is gone (no backup); doesn't help with graphing; doesn't remind you to log an entry, costs around $7

  2. Mood Panda (website/app)
    • Pros: visualizes for you, lets you save data, with you whenever you have your phone, FREE
    • Cons: janky, crashes a lot, slow, hard to use not on computer, doesn't remind you (I think... it's hard to tell), if your phone dies, you can't access it
    • maybe you can make your own questions? It froze too much for me to figure that out...


  3. Reporter (app)
    • Pros: Beautiful - one of the best apps I've seen, exports data that is easily turned into graphs, reminds you to make entries throughout the day, let's you choose your own questions, and automatically knows you are done sleeping when you move, has good built-in questions, the guy who makes the Feltron reports made it and uses it
    • Cons: relies on having a phone (I think an iPhone only), if your battery dies it doesn't work (obviously), costs $3.99

  4. Iconic History
    • This would work with one of the other three... cool trick, shows your browser history in icons:
Here is some more inspiration:


Six Months of My Life by David El Achkar

This is my life during the past six months. Each square = 15 minutes. Each column = 1 day. This picture represents 138 days or 3,000+ activities.

70 Days of Pulse by Laurie Frick

Pulse rate over 24 hours for 70 days from my Basis watch. Grey=null, blues=85



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