The Stanford Literary Lab website was made to examine and track different patterns for different literary genres. The website also describes the projects as methods to track genre trends, societal trends, and even gender based trends, over the course of history. The Literary Lab Pamphlet discusses how five people are trying to create a computer program that identifies a genre without any human intervention. They believe that it can be accomplished but it is a very complicated process, just like most digital processes, as we have discussed in class.

The Visualizing Data website that displays the Chicago Planning Agency plan is successful because it uses high-quality images and videos and the website has an accessible and manageable interface. Furthermore, they use charts, graphs, and interactive programs that allow users to engage with the data and understand it in many different ways.

The Visualizing Data website that displays the grey colored charts is successful because when predominantly using the color grey, you are then able to highlight the most important information with any non-grey color. Furthermore, it is easy to distinguish different shades of grey, which create an easily understood reference for interpretation. Grey is also a good color to use because it can represent the data that is momentarily unselected; with this in mind, you can still show the data, without putting it at the forefront.

The Hyper History website is seemingly successful because while the organization of the data is clear, the way it is displayed is not. In other words, there are very clear categories of “People, History, Events, Maps” and “Science, Culture, Religion, Politics”. However, upon clicking on these categories it is very confusing to read the data because each tab has a different layout; there is not a uniform layout. Furthermore, the navigation of the website is not the most simple. In regards to the previous website, this website could definitely use more grey.

The Neoformix website is successful at depicting the characters in Les Miserables. Even though you do not get a sense of the plot from this website, you get a rough understanding of the personalities of certain characters, a better understanding of which characters are more important, and an understanding for themes and concepts throughout the novel. Furthermore, the use of grey throughout the entire background of the website allows the design of the page to highlight all of the necessary information they are trying to portray.

Under the Analyze Data tab, we found “Visual Understanding Environment”. This tool is useful in analyzing large amounts of data because it can integrate with multiple repositories to pull in, organize, and analyze data. In other words it has the capability of compiling and sorting incredible amounts of data. Under the Visualize Data tab, we found “myHistro”. This tool is useful in analyzing large amounts of data because researchers can simultaneously create timelines and maps. Furthermore, it allows users to “travel” through history by learning about various places and events while following a timeline. This tool also allows users to “travel” at their own pace, so it is very user friendly.

-Jean Beecher, Matt Golding

2) What kinds of patterns are being examined and how are they being measured in the projects found at the Stanford Lit Lab?

• Patterns:
  • Temporal Aspect- Mapping out changes/affects/growth over time
  • Collecting more than creating
  • Looking at trends
• How are they being measured
  • Large databases
  • Computer modeling
  • Empirical Methods- Analyzing documents/texts (literary analyses)
  • Made different algorithms to analyze documents e.g. docuscope

5 a) What makes these visualizations successful?

These visualizations are successful because they are engaging and easy to navigate. In this vein, the visualizations are stimulating. They  use different colors and interactive designs to draw in the viewers, provoking the viewer to highlight the data as they see fit and allowing them to come to their own, independent conclusion. This is powerful. Rather than telling the viewer what to believe, the visualizations allow the user to draw self-resonating facts from the dataset. If the visualizations were less stimulating and less interactive, their effects would be minimized and they would not evoke the same response.  

The visualizations allow the user to sort through large amounts of data and information due to the way they are organized. For example, the Chicago map allows viewers to select exactly what they want to see, rather than seeing all the different transit data on the map at one time. Similarly, the hyperhistory site filters their data and visualizations into categories, and further allows selection by time period.

5 b) How would you measure their success?  If you had to develop a list of features that make these visualizations successful, what might those include?

List of features:

• Visually stimulating
• Easy to understand (uses legend, color designations, clear axes labeling etc.)
• Information categorized/ filtered in some way
• User interactive

6) How might these tools be useful in analyzing large amounts of data?  

1. a) Analysis Tool: Minitab

Minitab is a statistical package that allows users to analyze large amounts of data. It has the ability to sort and find patterns in data with thousands of observations with different characteristics. The package also allows for the use of regression analysis, which is helpful to examine whether or not there is some sort of causal relationship in the data. Overall, it helps the user observe all of the characteristics of a large sample quickly and easily.

1. b) Visual Tool: Visual Eyes (http://www.viseyes.org/)

The University of Virginia generated VisualEyes, a web-based visual tool that allows one to mesh images, maps, charts, video, and data into an interactive and engaging visualizations. This tool and tool like this are essential for generating powerfully popular visualizations. Having visualizations that engage the viewer is essential to propagate facts and the importance of a dataset for the researcher. Using Visual Eyes allows researchers to make provocative  visualizations to engage their viewers at a touch of a button, helping promote and popularize their interests the public domain.

Charlie Feinberg & Brett Mele

2/2/2017

2. What kinds of patterns are being examined and how are they being measured in the projects found at the Stanford Literary Lab?

All of the projects examine different patterns in a specific genre or geographic region within works of prose or literature. Large amounts of literature are being processed by computers to summarize certain patterns by analyzing words, places or terms that are mentioned. They examined how older books and genres are brought into the 21st century through new forms of analysis. By using specific tools, scholars can see trends and generate data through ways that don’t require the same amount of time as reading through the books manually.

5. Review the visualizations listed below.  What makes these visualizations successful?

http://www.visualisingdata.com/2015/01/new-visual-package-chicago-planning-agency/

http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2015/01/make-grey-best-friend/

http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html

http://neoformix.com/2013/NovelViews.html

How would you measure their success?  If you had to develop a list of features that make these visualizations successful, what might those include?

We would measure their success based on how interactive/user friendly the interface appears to be. The ones that we liked (1 and 2) felt extremely 3-Dimensional and interactive. There were many pictures and colors. Different colors are used to appeal to users and separate different parts of display. The third and fourth site did not do this as well as the first two due to poor designs that don’t capture the user’s attention. The amount of words in the third and fourth is too much and the visualization of data, such as graphs and maps are not as compelling as the first and second one.

If we had to develop a list of features, it would include:

• 3D and interactive features
• Pictures and different colors to label different time period or different geographic region
• Clean and concise design

6. Go to Dirt (Digital Research Tools) and choose one (1) tool listed under “Analyze Data” and one tool listed under “Visualize Data.”  How might these tools be useful in analyzing large amounts of data?

Visualeyes (Analyze Data) transforms large amounts of data into interactive and concise graphs, charts, maps, and video. It can be used to summarize a trend over history and to analyze historical events.

Google Correlate (Visualize Data) shows the popularity of certain terms in a certain period time and certain geographic region. It visualizes large amount of data and summarizes the trend and distribution over time. It shows where and how popular a certain phrase is.

Jill Fu and Georgia Miller

Feb 2, 2017

What kinds of patterns are being examined and how are they being measured in the projects found at the Stanford Literary Lab? 

The projects explores patterns concerning various literary mediums such as eighteenth and nineteenth century novels, poetic forms, and online fanfictions which are measured using a variety of methods such as digital crowdsourcing, prosodic and metrical analysis, natural language processing, and applied statistics.

What makes these visualizations successful?

These visualizations attempt to convey the most information in the most clear and concise way. Additionally, concerning the map of Chicago, the ability to interact with the graphics allows the user to personalize the information which organizes the information specifically for the needs of the user.

How would you measure their success?  If you had to develop a list of features that make these visualizations successful, what might those include?

To determine how successful these visualizations are, a measure of how often the visualizations are viewed and the degree of user interaction with the tool itself. For example, concerning the Chicago visualization, it would be useful to measure what interface features are used by individuals. To make visualizations more successful, the ability to interact to personally organize what information is displayed is a valuable feature.  Additionally, the use of contrasting color and fonts help to highlight what information is most important which contributes to the readability of the visual.

How might these tools be useful in analyzing large amounts of data? 

Sci2 Tool allows for the analysis of scientific data sets through the use of algorithms to process, analyze, and share large amounts of data.

ViewShare allows the user to import data, synthesize visual interfaces, collect data, and facilitates the presentation of said data on other platforms.

Michael Hoffman and Jack Hay

Ursula Castiblanco
Chenchen Zhao
February 2, 2017

Lab Session: Cultural Analytics & Visualizations

2. What kinds of patterns are being examined and how are they being measured in the projects found at the Stanford Literary Lab?

Networks being compared (12)
Result based on human response and understanding

Patterns include:

• Time
• Progression of human understanding
• Similarities in Literature

5. Review the visualizations listed below. What makes these visualizations successful?
How would you measure their success? If you had to develop a list of features that make these visualizations successful, what might those include?

These visualizations make use of colors, high-quality images and videos. They have dense information and clear menu. They don’t have a lot of text in between images.
They also show large amount of data with different kinds of charts. The size of images reflects the importance of the information.

• Colorful/ color coded
• Stimulating
• Quality
• Easily understood
• Relatable
• Updated
• Clear and concise
• Less text
• Fluid
• Emphasis on important information

6. Go to Dirt (Digital Research Tools) and choose one (1) tool listed under “Analyze Data” and one tool listed under “Visualize Data.” How might these tools be useful in analyzing large amounts of data?

Analyze Data:

Recognito2(CZ) (UC)
Helps gather any data, images, maps and texts.
Analyze-it (CZ)
Describe data with statistics.
Compare pairs, collaboration, correlation

Visualize Data:

Myindicators(UC)
Build your own goals, schedule, strategies, and other personal organizers.
Keep statistics and compare.