Interactive Mapping

Since I live in Marin and commute to school three to four days a week, the neighborhood I chose was the obvious, the Sunset District (I threw in Sunnyside because I go to CCSF twice a week). I started my map out with my usual route from the Golden Gate Bridge down to SFSU. I take Park Presidio and cut through the Golden Gate Park to Lincoln down to Sunset which links to Lake Merced then either make my way to the school lot or fight for a parking spot on the street. I picked a few different places that I've been to while I either lived in SF or ventured out to since I've been commuting.

Mapping out my routine on google maps is pretty fun. I like how simple it is to set places and move around the map without being confused or overwhelmed. Three simple icons let you place a holder, move around the map or map out routes with straight lines. The text box that pops up is also easy to use with base info place holders. The only thing that would be confusing for some people might be the idea of adding images. I used the html tag to add my images in the info boxes, but for people without an html background, they might find it harder to place images because it's not so obvious.

Comparing both the timeline and the my maps section on google, there are obvious differences. One is a timeline that sets up an event and the other is a "where have you been?" or "what do you like?" device. As mentioned in the previous blog, I think a timeline of technology would be benificial to those who are interested in new and upcoming technology. An interactive map could be used to place historical sights in a city or neighborhood. Also, websites like Crimespotting.org where they list crimes in an area is beneficial, but you could also consider that to be a timeline as well. Not so much a linear timeline where everything is listed out, but more a historical map.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=
105665652944601605091.0004862c67bca1750f2c6

Interactive Information Visualization: The Cinematic Life of Angie

For this assignment I decided to create my Dipity timeline on the most notable films Angelina Jolie has been in over her entire career. Of course I did this on Angelina because I just love her! But it was also very interesting looking at the different roles she has taken on. They range from made for TV moves to animated motion capture filmes to action to voiceovers. She has definitely had an interesting career. Here is the Dipity timeline create:

Angie's Life on Dipity.

I found using Dipity to be very intuitive. The only thing that I did find annoying and that only worked half of the time was the "save + add another event" button. Whenever I pushed this button, it only worked half of the time. Some times it took me to another box where I could input another event, but most of the time I was taken back to the timeline and had to push the "add event" button located at the top left of the timeline. This was rather annoying because I wanted to keep going and add more information in, instead of pausing to push another button. I think their overall design aesthetics could look a little bit vamped. From the timelines I looked at, they looked pretty dull, but to each their own.

I do like the idea of ongoing timelines that people have up that you can follow. I think the ones you can benefit from would be computers, medical technology and political events. For people who like to keep up with the technological advances computers have made over the past few decades would love the idea of following a timeline that might suggest future comings of new technology. For example. MacRumors.com uses a simliar timeline idea except they list them out instead of placing them on timelines. MacRumors.com tells consumers when should buy new computers, iPhones, iPhones, etc by guessing when new releases might come out. They list previous release dates of the most updated hardware and software, when new big company events are happening like MacWorld and give suggestion ratings on if a consumer should buy or not. They would benefit from using a timeline, visually compelling people to take their information even more seriously then they already do.