Summary
The article discussed a project called Themail which created a typographic visualization of an individual’s email content over time. Themail had two modes called haystack and needle which allowed users to choose whether they wanted to see a broad overview of information or specifics. Clicking a word displayed more information about the specific use of the word in emails. The interface showed a series of columns of words that varied in size and color depending on the usage. Yearly words or words that were most commonly used throughout the year were gray and in the background. Monthly words were in series of columns and represented both frequency and distinctness of its usage. This kind of visualization allows users to discover trends and visualize their relationships by studying common interactions and words. During testing, participants enjoyed the visualization and were able to both confirm their relationships and discover how these relationships changed over time.
Reflection
The method of visualization discussed in this article was interesting because it was able to display relationships over time. I don’t agree with the method they chose to filter out spam mail by only considering email addresses that the user has sent at least one email to. I believe that filtering out irrelevant and out of context emails was a difficult obstacle for them, but they were able to overall achieve a well designed visualization. They discussed the limitations of their project which were related to the nature of emails. They found that email had many uses and each use should be analyzed differently (i.e. forwarded emails, spam, etc.).
Questions
How could this visualization over time be applied to other mediums such as social media?
Would it be better to show more statistical information and less graphical information?
