Titles, URL & author

You’ve probably already glanced at the visualisation title, but have another look to see if it says anything more about the subject matter, the editorial perspective or the findings. In ‘The Pursuit of Faster’, the presence of the Olympic rings logo on the right provides an immediate indication of what the subject matter is. The title, ‘The Pursuit of Faster’, is quite ambiguous (and this is fairly typical), but the subtitle ‘Visualising the evolution of Olympic speed’ helps to explain what the visualisation is about.

If it is a web-based visualisation the URL is also worth looking at. You might already know where the visualisation is situated, but if not you can learn something from the site on which the project is being hosted. This can help you to decide whether to trust the visualisation and the message it is communicating. ‘The Pursuit of Faster’ is hosted on visualisingdata.com, which is not an Olympics or sport related site, but rather it is the visualisation designer’s site. Look at the home page to learn more.

There is nothing on this visualisation about who created the project. We can find this out by clicking on the ‘Read more about this project’ link. Often the visualisation designer’s name appears underneath the visualisation.