Music Connections
Music Connections is an Undergraduate Thesis project that explores the shared connections between the Billboard Year-End Singles (1946–2013). More than just eye candy, the goal is to prove that these types of network visualizations can show the structural, musical and cultural relationships between songs. By using a set of specific attributes combined with color identification, the graph can be used as an informational and interactive explorational tool.
Web Design, Data Visualization
The Challenge
Presenting Network Visualizations in an Interactive Medium
Part of the criticism that network visualizations receives is that while they are a joy to look at as art, the data itself is rather challenging to absorb. Because of the amount of data present, it could be overwhelming to look through at once.
The Website
Visualizing Connections
With the power of Gephi and Sigma.JS, visualizing and exploring the connections between songs becomes incredibly easy for users. Users have the choice to either view the entire visualization or focus on the individual stats. From here, each data point can be explored one at a time to see how each point eventually connects to the entire graph.
Presentation of Findings
No data visualization would be complete without a summary of findings. Here, I decided to present each data point as an infograph in order to better communicate what the findings were. In addition to being viewable on the web, a 36″ x 24″ poster was designed as a takeaway.
Presentation of Findings
No data visualization would be complete without a summary of findings. Here, I decided to present each data point as an infograph in order to better communicate what the findings were. In addition to being viewable on the web, a 36″ x 24″ poster was designed as a takeaway.
Searching Through the Data
Another function that was added to the visualization was the ability to search the data. Here, if a user has a specific artist in mind, they could easily search for it to see if the artist is part of the data set. Results are interactive and will jump straight to the data point on the visualization.
