Ta-daa, dataa!

Knowledge is power. But can it also be beautiful? Data visualisation helps to see data in a new way. At the same time, it makes statistics, tables and numbers more easily comprehensible. For us all.

The style and topic of the competition can be freely chosen: the visualisations can be associated with school subjects, the local environments of the young people themselves or various hobbies, etc. Or with the most popular music artists and hairstyles of the day. Which hairdos and favourite bands can be found in one seventh grade class – and do people's preferences have anything to do with the place where they sit in the classroom? All this can be learnt from the visualisation implemented by the students of the Puistola comprehensive school.

View visualisation

How much water do you eat?

Let’s consider for example the effect of food on the environment. We know that lack of clean water is a global problem which will increase further as a result of climate change and population growth. The sad fact is that around the globe there is an uneven distribution of potable water. Some are in constant need of water, whilst others have an overabundance.

One way to reduce water consumption is to look at your dinner plate. Wonderwater Café demonstrates how much water will be consumed before a certain portion of food finds its way on to your plate. The results are surprising and informative. Particularly in the more affluent countries, the water footprint will be an increasingly important part of people’s lives in the 2010’s.

WonderWater Cafè - a collaboration between Aalto University and WonderWater
Design: Aalto University, Iina Välilä & Tiina Koivusalo
Campaign infographics: Aalto University, Tiina Koivusalo
Curation: Jane Withers, Kari Korkman
Water expertise: Aalto University, Water and Development Group, Matti Kummu & Miina Porkka

View visualisation

The national economic river

Whether we like it or not, the economy is a very visible part of our daily lives. Yet budgets, profit reports and economic calculations are often presented in such a confused manner that even a top level financial director would struggle to make them out. Therefore, when speaking about money, we are staring at one little brook when we should be looking at the whole stream.

The graph depicting Finland’s GDP illustrates the building blocks of our national economy. The sizes of the ponds reveal how many people work at each sector. The widths of the river beds tell us how much added value each sector produces.

The national economic river has been produced by using the Tax Tree (Veropuu) tool created by Peter Tattersall from Hahmota Oy. The software will automatically draw a clear image of, say, the municipal budget. The Tax Tree concept has twice received awards in the Apps4Finland competition.

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From Central Railway Station during rush hour you can reach in 10 minutes to...

Let’s look at distances. By using a ruler, we can calculate the distance between two locations on the map. But how long will it take to get from point A to point B? This is something that an ordinary map or a ruler cannot show. A pity, because the time taken by a journey is usually much more important to people than the number of miles covered.

The map of Helsinki will reveal the time that it really takes to travel between different neighbourhoods. The visualisation has been implemented by the informaatiomuotoilu.fi workgroup from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. This group of graphic designers is currently producing the first basic Finnish language volume on information design.

View visualisation

Favorite drinks

Design does not refer to high tech but to innovative thinking. The same also applies to information design. Information stored in people’s brains can of course be illustrated without computers. Data visualisation can help to perceive thoughts, impressions and ideas. Visualisation methods can include drawing, photography and even dance. Knowledge really knows no bounds. As in our example, data visualisations can be associated among other things with the young boy’s favourite drinks.

Data source: Aarne Aalto, one man market research, 2011
Technical implementation: Aarne Aalto, refrigerator contents, 2011

More visualisation examples

Wild, funny and informative visualisations of the most varied data and information have been produced around the world. The links below lead to successful examples and the authors’ comments on their work.

Visualisation galleries and blogs

Information is Beautiful
Flowing Data
Visualizing.org
The Intersection of Data and Design
Informaatiomuotoilu.fi
HRI’s examples of visualisations

Good sources of information

Here we provide a selection of links to public bodies which produce statistics in Finland. Statistics Finland is the national statistics authority, and its website contains data sets on a variety of phenomena. In addition, many cities in Finland publish statistics on subjects relating to urban issues. In the Helsinki Region, city statistics have been collected under the portal Helsinki Region Infoshare (www.hri.fi).

Statistics Finland
City of Helsinki
City of Espoo
City of Kauniainen
City of Vantaa
City of Lahti

Statistics Finland: Catalogue of Finnish statistics providers.
Youth Research Library: Youth in statistics

Open data

In the last few years, a great deal of statistics and information has started being published as so-called open data that can be freely re-used and is in a machine-readable format. As this type of data are easier to process, they lend themselves nicely to applications and visualisations on a computer. An example of open data would be the material on the HRI (Helsinki Region Infoshare) portal. The portal also features a list of other providers of open data.

Visualisation tools

For those who have a little bit of knowledge of programming and would like to enter deeper into open data visualisation, here are two examples of tools that can help you get started. More information about visualisation tools can be found on the Helsinki Region Infoshare blog.

Google Spreadsheets
R project

Knowledge is power. But can it also be beautiful? Data visualisation helps to see data in a new way. At the same time, it makes statistics, tables and numbers more easily comprehensible. For us all. The style and topic of the competition can be freely chosen: the visualisations can be associated with school subjects, the local environments of the young people themselves or various hobbies, etc. Or with the most popular music artists and hairstyles of the day. Which hairdos and favourite bands can be found in one seventh grade class – and do people's preferences have anything to do with the place where they sit in the classroom? All this can be learnt from the visualisation implemented by the students of the Puistola comprehensive school. View visualisation How much water do you eat? Let’s consider for example the effect of food on the environment. We know that lack of clean water is a global problem which will increase further as a result of climate change and population growth. The sad fact is that around the globe there is an uneven distribution of potable water. Some are in constant need of water, whilst others have an overabundance. One way to reduce water consumption is to look at your dinner plate. Wonderwater Café demonstrates how much water will be consumed before a certain portion of food finds its way on to your plate. The results are surprising and informative. Particularly in the more affluent countries, the water footprint will be an increasingly important part of people’s lives in the 2010’s. WonderWater Cafè - a collaboration between Aalto University and WonderWater Design: Aalto University, Iina Välilä & Tiina Koivusalo Campaign infographics: Aalto University, Tiina Koivusalo Curation: Jane Withers, Kari Korkman Water expertise: Aalto University, Water and Development Group, Matti Kummu & Miina Porkka View visualisation The national economic river Whether we like it or not, the economy is a very visible part of our daily lives. Yet budgets, profit reports and economic calculations are often presented in such a confused manner that even a top level financial director would struggle to make them out. Therefore, when speaking about money, we are staring at one little brook when we should be looking at the whole stream. The graph depicting Finland’s GDP illustrates the building blocks of our national economy. The sizes of the ponds reveal how many people work at each sector. The widths of the river beds tell us how much added value each sector produces. The national economic river has been produced by using the Tax Tree (Veropuu) tool created by Peter Tattersall from Hahmota Oy. The software will automatically draw a clear image of, say, the municipal budget. The Tax Tree concept has twice received awards in the Apps4Finland competition. View visualisation From Central Railway Station during rush hour you can reach in 10 minutes to... Let’s look at distances. By using a ruler, we can calculate the distance between two locations on the map. But how long will it take to get from point A to point B? This is something that an ordinary map or a ruler cannot show. A pity, because the time taken by a journey is usually much more important to people than the number of miles covered. The map of Helsinki will reveal the time that it really takes to travel between different neighbourhoods. The visualisation has been implemented by the informaatiomuotoilu.fi workgroup from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. This group of graphic designers is currently producing the first basic Finnish language volume on information design. View visualisation Favorite drinks Design does not refer to high tech but to innovative thinking. The same also applies to information design. Information stored in people’s brains can of course be illustrated without computers. Data visualisation can help to perceive thoughts, impressions and ideas. Visualisation methods can include drawing, photography and even dance. Knowledge really knows no bounds. As in our example, data visualisations can be associated among other things with the young boy’s favourite drinks. Data source: Aarne Aalto, one man market research, 2011 Technical implementation: Aarne Aalto, refrigerator contents, 2011 More visualisation examples Wild, funny and informative visualisations of the most varied data and information have been produced around the world. The links below lead to successful examples and the authors’ comments on their work. Visualisation galleries and blogs Information is Beautiful Flowing Data Visualizing.org The Intersection of Data and Design Informaatiomuotoilu.fi HRI’s examples of visualisations Good sources of information Here we provide a selection of links to public bodies which produce statistics in Finland. Statistics Finland is the national statistics authority, and its website contains data sets on a variety of phenomena. In addition, many cities in Finland publish statistics on subjects relating to urban issues. In the Helsinki Region, city statistics have been collected under the portal Helsinki Region Infoshare (www.hri.fi). Statistics Finland City of Helsinki City of Espoo City of Kauniainen City of Vantaa City of Lahti Statistics Finland: Catalogue of Finnish statistics providers.Youth Research Library: Youth in statistics Open data In the last few years, a great deal of statistics and information has started being published as so-called open data that can be freely re-used and is in a machine-readable format. As this type of data are easier to process, they lend themselves nicely to applications and visualisations on a computer. An example of open data would be the material on the HRI (Helsinki Region Infoshare) portal. The portal also features a list of other providers of open data. Visualisation tools For those who have a little bit of knowledge of programming and would like to enter deeper into open data visualisation, here are two examples of tools that can help you get started. More information about visualisation tools can be found on the Helsinki Region Infoshare blog. Google Spreadsheets R project