Comments on: Historical French Wine Labels

By: robertv

robertv — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 14:54:01 +0000

@Rahulb Here’s a link to the converted data:

(1) Converted into one table:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nFdwsXL0UzxVe9gecv2khlHqZGCzhZfNLLfuUaxci8A/edit?usp=sharing

(2) Converted into one table and generated *some* values:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1asNNHo2gnO6y2RhDk1nKQ405UXCvkagARtpJcISIW5g/edit?usp=sharing

The original data came from https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo-search/study/13194. In (1), we simply took the latitude and longitude values from the locations sheet and put all the regions into one column. In (2), in addition to the above, we also generated missing values for years in-between non-missing values. We made sure to mark whether the values were generated or not. Here’s a link to the script that generated (1): https://gist.github.com/robertvunabandi/767675136c3dfa8600aa6310ee253008, and here’s a link to the script that generated (2): https://gist.github.com/robertvunabandi/f7f23345b987b8c5d2c58c11745334ab.

By: joshuafeldman

joshuafeldman — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 14:31:39 +0000

This is a really creative use of the data! I liked how you incorporated the historical focus into the overall aesthetic of the visualization through colours, fonts, and tone. Something that would have been interesting to play with is how to better emphasize the historical aspects of the maps. The way cultures understand space changes overtime. Right now, time is only mapped to the visual through the date at the bottom. There are some really awesome historical maps that you could look at for inspiration.

By: rahulb

rahulb — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 13:48:13 +0000

This is a creative approach to telling a data story that integrates history of a place well.

Centrality of maps:
The location map is front and center on the label. The geographic historical event is a nice way to make something work within the context of the assignment for this sketch.

Rationale for design choices:
Your rationale for avoiding the change-over-time story makes sense with the context you’ve set up. Discovering the story of the Champagne riots was a nice example of the factoid story.

Layers of reading:
The map narrows the location well and introduces the area, and then the longer narrative on the back is some nice history. What I think is missing is the middle layer of reading, perhaps some symbols to represent the historical moment could have helped here.

Appropriate data use:
Your walk-through of how you set-up and dug-into the data is good (but dwells a little too much on explaining the data). You “melted” the data well – can you add a link to that to support other project we might do in the rest of the semester?

Suitability for audience:
Picking the labels is a creative approach to thinking about how we tell data stories – lots of constraints, but a fun playground to think about. This Is an appropriate response for the audience you’ve specified.

Narrative:
It is hard to build a whole story on a tiny label. Including the historical event is a neat idea, and reinforces the geography of the place a little bit.

By: ezucca

ezucca — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 12:49:41 +0000

I like the wine label approach, by both telling a compelling story and representing data in a concise way. I believe by telling a story about the wine, people are more interested into trying it out because it is more emotionally connected to them and they might feel like they “taste a bit of history”. I would probably have expanded a bit more the geographic aspect, since stories are mostly told through the text. I would also color in the same color France and Corsica, while everything else in black, both neighbouring countries and sea.

By: ifeoluwa

ifeoluwa — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 08:01:10 +0000

These labels are aesthetically pleasing.
The font and colors are chosen to emphasize the historical focus.
Using a simple map makes a lot of sense, using terrain would detract from the data. However, it would be interesting to show how the geography of France has changed in some ways. For example, the map of France during WW2 could show the line of Nazi Occupation at that time to show that Champagne was in the occupied region. The labels do a really good job of telling the story and have some really interesting takeaways, however, I think the maps could do a bit more to help tell this story while.
The purpose of labels is to encourage people to buy a bottle of wine so I could see how having this label would work to this effect.

By: sarahmousa

sarahmousa — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 21:07:15 +0000

This is a great concept and presentation – the creative use of titles, maps, and font sizes aren’t just aesthetic, they make the story easy to read. In terms of constructive feedback: I see how you used the data to choose your stories, and reference data points in the narrative but it does not feel like the data is the center of the story, rather it feels like the data is used to compliment or enhance the historical narrative told through text. If there is a way that the data could carry the story that would be great. I am also not certain what the main takeaway is–if it is that winemaking is tied to history, then that is clear.

By: cxhua

cxhua — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 15:07:59 +0000

Hi! I really liked your map work — I thought the aesthetics and idea to do a wine label was really clever and distinctive. In particular, I like the way the style of the maps immediately related to its historical and regional theme, and it was clear what narrative I was looking at even before I started reading.

One thing I would have appreciated additionally is if imagery had been used more in the storytelling. The stories were mostly told through text and it would have been nice to see some of the imports/exports or troop movements mapped via arrows or other symbols.