Visualizing Time with the Infinity Hour Chart | Hacker News Reader

Visualizing Time with the Infinity Hour Chart

dougmccune.com

109 pointsGarbage14 comments

The use of the infinity symbol seems really confusing. I would think a circle with midnight mapped to the top and noon to the bottom would make for a considerably more natural mapping. I'd find myself confused by the twist in infinity switching up whether clockwise or counter represented the flow of time.

Why do you find midnight at the top more natural? I find the author's choice more natural as it reflects the apparent position of the sun.

Because when thinking about time of day, people are more likely to relate to the clocks they look at to see the time than to the sun which few people use to work out the time?

Obviously, a clock wouldn't be 24H, but none the less it starts and ends each day at the top, not the bottom.

The problem is that people already have the 12 hour clock burned into their minds. I think the use of the infinity symbol is a good attempt because it breaks away from the normal clock visualisation but still makes simple sense.

This sort of data would be beter visualized using line graphs (or sparklines) to easily compare the values. Vertical alignments of data make it easier to compare other values and scan visually.

That's exactly what I tried to do in my previous post: http://dougmccune.com/blog/2011/04/26/visualizing-time-with-...

The big downsides I was trying to overcome with line/bar charts is the difficulty in preserving the continuity from the end of the chart back to the beginning. A normal bar chart usually just breaks the data, making it hard to understand the trend that occurs in the time period that spans the break. But you're definitely right that that type of visualization makes comparing the bars much much easier.

Interesting. Perhaps I'll try this out for my display

http://emit.phys.ocean.dal.ca/~kelley/skyview/tab=results...

of light levels (an early-stage project designed for high schools).

I'm not convinced that this has any benefit over just using a circle with 24 hour clock

Well the author says in the conclusion that they don't think that they're particularly readable, but from an artistic point of view they're definitely more interesting.

Even if it isn't a success, I would like to encourage this kind of experimentation with data visualisation.

I agree with Stuk, data visualisation is all about capturing the users attention and interest besides giving out information . Maybe its not apt for a police station soft board but a junior school teacher on the other hand might find it useful

You sound as if "giving out information" is a secondary goal of data visualization, while I would argue that capturing the user's attention and interest are.

Just out of curiosity, what does a circular 24-hour clock look like? Midnight at the top, and noon at the bottom, where 6 o'clock would normally be?

The benefit is in avoiding the confusion that comes from mapping a new concept (a 24-hour clock) onto a very familiar, almost instinctual one (a 12-hour clock).

You guessed right. If I wore jewellery I'd wear 24 hour watches: http://www.xs4all.nl/~andres55/cosmonaute1.htm

most 24-hour clocks and watches have 0 or 24 at the top. i've seen a few with 0 at the southern-most position but they are not very common.

here's my watch:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/symmetricalism/5703135927/

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