by
As 2019 comes to a close, this visualization takes a look at some of the biggest news stories from the last ten years and allows users to mark which ones they remember.
PROCESS
Data Collection:
The data collection for this viz was done manually. It took many more hours than anticipated (more than 20 hours!!) to get through all 10 years events. Events were sourced through many different references, then rated based on what were the biggest or most persistent headlines. I also included top music, memes, and movies. These were included sparingly, based off ranking sites like KnowYourMeme and Billboard Top 100. At first I had more than 50 events per year. There were too many events to include in the visualization, so these were condensed to the top 20ish for each year.
Design:
I went through three different designs before settling on this one. I wanted to do something unusual with the shape, so I choose to use a swirl, rather than a perfect circle. My intent is to portray time winding out. Though I used a swirl, I made it subtle so as not to interfere with the content. A last minute decision was to strip the viz of color so that it would not compete with the featured images.
Technology:
The first technology challenge was creating a swirl in D3. This was achieved by decreasing the radius as the line's angle changed. The second challenge was hooking up a backend. I wanted to capture users "remembered" events to highlight which were the most memorable. For this I used PHP and a friend. :)
UX:
Though I attempted to make this viz mobile friendly, in the end I ran out of time and it isn't pixel perfect on mobile devices. I may come back later and address that if I have time. I wanted an interactive viz. The CTA remember button serves nicely to fulfill this purpose.