I’ve been making some good progress with the online graph. I’ve grown more comfortable with the config.json file (controls some options for the display of the graph online). I’m still trying to figure out a good number for the min and max node size. I’ve also edited the graph further online.
Color wise, here’s a palette I’ve been exploring with:
This is by no means a final palette choice. But it’s definitely a start.
For now, I don’t want to go back into Gephi to play with the graph. One of the things that has been incredibly annoying is that every time I re-open the file in Gephi and play with the layout options, the graph disappears. The only workaround I’ve found has been re-importing my two spreadsheets. Re-importing means I have to change the color manually, which is so time consuming. As I’m writing this, I think there may be a way to specify the color through the spreadsheets. I’ll have to look into that.
That brings me to the print. I’ve been looking at different sizes and color choices. As Amy mentioned, it is definitely a good idea to keep it consistent between both the web version and printed version. As of now, I have the same exact layout that I am using online. The lines online are a set size, not matter how much you zoom in or out. I tried using the same stroke on the print, but it was too difficult to see. A thicker stroke makes it too cluttered. Which begs the question does this need to be on a bigger poster? Right now, it’s on a 36″ x 24″ poster, which is the biggest size the print shop said they are able to do. I just emailed them asking if they could go bigger than that.
Here are some of the background and colors I explored:
As of now, this is the one I’ve settled with. I think the dark background works best with the data.
I’ve tried two with a white background but the visualization itself felt like it just had no context to it.
With the feedback, I should look into how wide can this actually get. Using the rolls of paper with the printer might be good alternative and may allow more room for both the visualization and some data. An interesting thing Amy pointed out was to include all of the songs and their connections next to the visualization. That way, a viewer can read the data as opposed to looking at the visualization. Another thing is so consider how to make the frontman playing an instrument more relevant to this data. I’ll be connected those to the decades rather than the songs themselves.
Looking ahead, I’ve created a sub-folder on my site for this project. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but I honestly didn’t realize you can have multiple WordPress installs on one site. I’d like to have a site dedicated to this because I want to continue doing this post graduation. Which had me thinking about a name: Music Connections. Not sure how I feel about it, but I’m going to keep that on the back burner. For now, I want to put a considerable amount of time into the print of this visualization. Time to organize the length of the songs into ranges.