Datum Ipsum
Designing robust real-time visualisations with realistic placeholder data
July 9th, 2016
Matthew Ström • @ilikescience • Data Viz Camp 2016
Hi, I'm Matt
@ilikescience
I work for Planetry
http://planetary.io
How many of you are designers?
Expectation
Source: https://dribbble.com/dworkz
Reality
Source: Investopedia
How many of you are designers?
How many of you have taken a statistics class?
Designing real-time data visualisations is hard.
REAL data is not intuitive.
Source: http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
REAL data is not intuitive.
Chance that 2 have the same birthday
# of People
367
100%
99.9%
70
23
50%
The Birthday Problem
Real Data is hard to fake.
Benford's law
In any large set of numbers, around 30 percent will begin with the digit 1, 18 percent with 2, and so on, with the smallest percentage beginning with 9.
Real Data is unpredictable.
Real Data is unpredictable.
what's a designer to do?
Global Temperature Mean
https://github.com/datasets/global-temp
Use real data!
Use real data!
Natural Gas Prices
https://github.com/datasets/natural-gas-prices
Use real data!
Oil Prices
https://github.com/datasets/oil-prices
Or...
Use placeholder data!
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Placeholder Text:
Placeholder Data:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin nisi massa, euismod nec volutpat molestie, dictum quis dolor. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Fusce a semper ligula. Vestibulum tempor nibh at velit dapibus, eget semper neque porta. Donec tempor mattis neque, ut sollicitudin nisi facilisis id. Nunc sagittis vulputate dui vel dignissim. Fusce ultrices suscipit mi eget facilisis. Duis non auctor urna. Nullam fringilla commodo mi, varius consequat erat sodales ac. Etiam gravida quam et dictum suscipit.
Doesn't look real
Doesn't look real
Placeholder Text:
Placeholder Data:
The project was a bold one, full of difficulty, perhaps impracticable. Mr. Fogg was going to risk life, or at least liberty, and therefore the success of his tour. But he did not hesitate, and he found in Sir Francis Cromarty an enthusiastic ally.
As for Passepartout, he was ready for anything that might be proposed. His master's idea charmed him; he perceived a heart, a soul, under that icy exterior. He began to love Phileas Fogg.
Much Better
Much Better
Ken Perlin
Perlin Noise
↑ this isn't Ken
Random Vector Fields
Low
High
A
B
A
B
Low
High
Short Walk
Medium Walk
Long Walk
SUM OF ALL WALKS
Sine Wave
Perlin Noise
Daily Active Users
Normal Distribution
Perlin Noise
Ratings Data
Exponential Function
Perlin Noise
Viral Growth
Resources
OSX Grapher
http://plot.ly
http://wolframalpha.com
Coming Soon!
datumipsum.com
An interactive tool to generate realistic placeholder data for designers
Datum Ipsum
By Matthew Ström
Datum Ipsum
Designing real-time data visualizations is hard: our expectations often miss the mark of reality, and the design of the product suffers. How can we get better at predicting what data will look like, and how can we use those predictions in our designs?
