Below is a Circular Dendrogram diagram from Rawgraphs.io representing the most popular baby names in New Zealand from the year 2001 to 2010, with data derived from this dataset.
This diagram allowed me to organize data into several hierarchies which I believe shows the trend of the names being used. Firstly, the names were split according to time, with each branch clockwise corresponding to a year from 2001 to 2010. This was the most obvious hierarchy needed since a trend is defined as something popular in a time period. Secondly, the names were split according to gender, since each gender’s names were very distinctive compared to the other. Finally, the names were arranged and colored following their popularity ranking, going clockwise from most popular to least popular.
It was here that I changed something from the system default. Originally, since the ranking number increased as the name becomes less popular, less popular names were given darker colors and I reversed that. The reason was thanks to inspiration by Lin’s lecture. She analyzed that a successful data visualization process consists of exploration and explanation of data, with coloring belonging to the latter. Since I was aiming for a more increased emphasis on the more popular names, this method allows for any viewer’s eye to naturally gravitate toward the most popular name after navigating through the previous 2 categories. I have personally tested this on myself to verify their effectiveness: The darker colors greatly contrast against the white background while the lighter colors blend in, leading to the former appearing bigger and closer to the viewer, thus drawing in their attention. In fact, the circles corresponding to the names are all equal in size.
On top of that, the circle format of this graph when combined with the color gradient creates the image of meteors cycling anti-clockwise, carrying the viewer’s attention as they go through the whole diagram. This allows them to naturally looks back in time to see the past trends in order without having to look at the Time layer again.
Data visualization like this in any field, including Digital Humanities, is all about reinterpreting text-heavy raw information into a more intuitive form. By using the Circular Dendrogram, I have managed to convert an Excel table that is very tedious to parse through into a picture that will navigate the viewer’s attention for them. It also helps that when looking from afar, the dendrogram creates a very beautiful pattern similar to a lotus, giving even more incentives to maintain focus on it.
3 thoughts on “The New Zealand Identity Dendrogram”
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Wow, what a creative way to visualize this data! I feel like the world needs more dendrograms. Although I like the current contrast of the colors, I feel like this graph would’ve really shined if there was just a little bit less going on. Did you consider splitting the massive dendrogram into several different dendrograms organized by year?
Major props! The graph looks fantastic! I like how you were able to literally show everything in a clear and eye-pleasing way. The only change I would’ve made is to maybe change the colors of the lines by year. Since the lines are spaced out, it’s not a big deal, but would be a bit helpful.
This is certainly a very interesting and visually appealing way to summarize this data. I was a little confused at first glance, but upon reading the labels and the introduction to the post, it makes a lot of sense and lets you quickly look at a particular year and gender. I also like how you deliberately made the higher ranking names darker so they catch your eye immediately. Well done!