Chris Mueller – Visualmotive

Thoughts on maps and visualization

Walk or Bus? iPhone app

Walk or Bus? iPhone app

Our popular Walk or Bus chart is now an iPhone application. The app allows you to enter a travel distance as well as the time until the next bus, and the application will estimate whether you could travel faster by walking or by waiting for the bus. All estimates can be tweaked to match your walking speed, your city’s average block size, and bus speeds.

Continue reading »   Feb 25, 2010Comments Off

Color Sorting – Python source code

I have had several requests for the Color Sorting code I used to create these images. The pixel-based color sorting uses linear and Hilbert sorting techniques in RGB, YIQ, and HSV color spaces. ColorSorting is now on Github.

Continue reading »   Feb 3, 2010Comments Off

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

The process of writing comics

“Comics are juxtaposed pictorial and other images in a deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.” These are my notes from Scott McCloud’s excellent book Understanding Comics.

Continue reading »   Dec 9, 2009Comments Off

Notes on Color

Munsell Color Space. Image created with POV-Ray, CC license via Wikimedia Commons

Choosing colors for maps, charts, and infographics can be a difficult task. Standard software packages like Excel and Matlab have tended to offer substandard color schemes (though this is getting better) so it’s up to the designer to learn about color and apply the appropriate techniques. This post will focus on understanding color schemes for maps.

Continue reading »   Dec 7, 2009Comments Off

Cartographer.js Updates

A few quick notes regarding the latest release of Cartographer.js. Cartographer has an official Twitter channel. Follow @cartographerjs for updates. The latest version has full support for Internet Explorer (tested in IE 6+). The latest version also sports substantial speed improvements and should be easier to extend in the future.

Continue reading »   Nov 23, 2009Comments Off

Introducing Cartographer.js

Cartographer.js screenshots: chloropleth, area-scaled circles, and pie charts

Cartographer.js is a thematic mapping library for Google Maps that simplifies the development process and provides instant access to proven visualization techniques. Developers are freed from worrying about how to tweak the Google Maps API to build the thematic elements they need, and can focus on more important problems like data collection and normalization. Cartographer.js supports custom styling so it can integrate seamlessly into existing web applications.

Continue reading »   Oct 21, 20094 Comments

Walk or Bus?

Should you walk or take the bus?

It is intuitive that when you have a short distance to travel it is always faster to walk than wait around for a bus. But exactly how long should you wait? We decided to do some calculations to find out. Click here to see Walk or Bus?

Continue reading »   Sep 28, 200913 Comments

The Ebstorf Mappamundi – map of the 13th c. Christian World

The Ebstorfer mappamundi, map of the Christian World in the 13th century overlaid with an image of Christ. (click for high resolution)

The Ebstorf mappamundi was drawn in 13th century Saxony and depicts the Christian worldview within the body of a crucified Christ. The map illustrates both the “known world” as well as significant landmarks and points of interest for the curious pilgrim.

Continue reading »   Sep 24, 2009One Comment

Area Scaled Map from 1930 – Markets are People

Markets are People, published 1930 by Printer

“Markets are People” is a beautifully drawn map. It uses area-distortion to show population at both the state and city level. This is the first map we have seen that uses the area-distortion method at two resolutions. The effect is visually accurate, highly readable, and offers deeper insight into the data than similar maps that offer only one level of detail.

Continue reading »   Sep 16, 2009Comments Off

Sorting Colors

Color sorting using RGB, HSV, and YIQ color spaces

We recently needed to sort the pixels in an image by their color. On first attempt, we sorted by simple RGB values: first sort on R, then on G, then B. But it turns out there are many other possibilities for sorting colors. Every permutation of the RGB letters could be considered (RBG, GBR, GRB, [...]

Continue reading »   Sep 14, 2009One Comment