Visualizing Mobility Patterns

Dan Boyarski, former head of Carnegie Mellon’s School of Design, visited HK PolyU as a guest lecturer over the past three weeks to conduct a design studio workshop with my class.  We were asked to collect data about ourselves over five days to create a visual representation. In this sense, it becomes information design in the form of a self-portrait.

I tracked the locations I visited, my routes and the modes of transportation I took, then sketched out my patterns following the form of the Hong Kong map.  I also kept track of the times at which I travelled so I considered the use of colour to differentiate the different days and times of travel.

Because of the rich data set I had collected, it was important to convey the information on both a macro and micro level for the viewers. Macro view gives a big-picture idea of the data set (the map pattern), while micro view communicates the details of my travels, such as the date, time, exact location, duration. I created a colour-coded timeline to engage viewers on the micro level, which also acts as a legend for the line colours and types on the map.

I presented the final piece as a printed poster 23″ x 16.5″.

Detailed Views

Data Set

Concept Sketches

{ Tags: data, design, hk polyu, hong kong, information design, mapping, visualization }