technology milestones in data visualization before 2000s


Timelines

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1TIyvd7xnrqoR_d8jVgfxkaeR0F4eUxewwnzW3KVS0Cc&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650

Introduction:

Data visualization changed the way people used to think of data. It provided a more interesting and efficient method for viewers to quickly understand large sets of data. Despite of the accessibility caused by economic & social status, data used to be elite and exlusive because of the knowledge and training it required to process the data. Data visualization popularized data and made it more accessible to a larger audience (although there are still limits today). None of this could happen without technology.

Goal:

Technology could be as small as a piece of grid graph paper in the initial phrase of data visualization and later it could be as big (in size) as the world’s 1st digital computer. I hope this time line of technology milestones in the history of data visualization expands viewer’s  mindset about data visualization and help them realize how interdisciplinary it is, especially in technology developments.

This timeline shows technology milestones in the history of data visualization before 2000s. This timeline entails a great variety of inventions that were marked as “milestones” in data visualiztion developments. It entails inventions such as pantograph which was also used oil paintings, recording of motion and first movie which were also considered significant in film/movie history. Furthermore, this timeline greatly shows a trend of technologies in data visualization. After the first computer in 1944, more technology inventions were related to computers such as programming languages and interactive systems. It also indicates the popularization of data visualization.  In the 1600s, technology milestones were really spaced out, however, the technology milestones were much closer to each other in the 1800s and 1900s.

Tools:

TimelineJS

GoogleSheets

Google Image

YouTube Videos

Self-reflection:

I think the timeline captures a great variety of milestones, however I feel like I should be more selecive about the data so that viewers can see the trend in a more clear way. I like that I put different media such as video and image on each milestone page for them to be more descriptive and interesting. However, I think the visual layouts could be more diverse and ceative. For example, set the media as background of the page rather than simply put it next to the texts.

Related Post:

http://www.datavis.ca/milestones/