

The best data visualisation I've ever seen - rudenoise
http://brendandawes.posterous.com/the-best-data-visualisation-ive-ever-seen

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TeMPOraL
Great idea. Thanks for posting this!

Reminds me of an advice my friend gave me once. I was writing a small game
with a ball flying between planets in 2D space. Sometimes the ball would
travel outside of the screen boundaries. I used to draw a marker on the proper
side of the screen to point to where the ball is. The friend suggested much
better idea - a circle centered on the ball should be drawn, with radius big
enough to make it visible on the game screen. The continuous change of the
curvature and length of the visible part of the circle provides feedback on
the ball-to-screen distance in the same way that, in your example, hand
gestures can provide information on the distance between the car and the wall.

Screenshot:
[http://temporal.pr0.pl/devblog/download/projects/ClozeCall/s...](http://temporal.pr0.pl/devblog/download/projects/ClozeCall/screenshot-
marker.jpg)

Note the part of the circle visible near the bottom of that picture.

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hammock
That is a much better solution than the "marker" or arrow approach that I've
seen in many video games. The arrow approach basically only gives directional
information, doesn't offer much feedback in terms of distance from the edge of
screen.

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BigglesZX
I too have seen this before, but I believe the point that the author was
making was an observation of the hand signal's simplicity.

It's an unabiguous indicator of the physical situation he's observing, and
doesn't involve any added complication of an ad-hoc signalling system (like
waving for "come on" or "slow down" or "left/right", which are often somewhat
ambiguous or at least require a second or two's thought).

A fleshy progress bar, if you will!

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joezydeco
I'm guessing the author has never watched an aircraft being guided into it's
parking spot at an airport. The ground crew does the same thing with the
handheld cones/flashlights.

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mtarnovan
Seriously ? This is something that I've been doing all the time when I assist
someone in parking in a tight spot.

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sandstrom
I agree, it's an excellent example of good visualization. My dad taught me a
few years ago, it's very effective.

