Giving big data a half-time show.
Vizzuality loves to take on big data challenges, so we were honoured and thrilled when Google asked us to work on a flagship visualisation for their new Trends API. The topic was fan loyalty in the lead up to Super Bowl XLIX. Over the course of four weeks we turned anonymised search data from across the United States into a gripping showdown, using a heap of data wrangling, a generous sprinkling of modern design principles and a topping of Vizzuality magic. So sit back and watch the fans react to the biggest plays and shock victories on the road to the Super Bowl.
There was a lot of potential data to visualise, so our first challenge was to identify the most important pieces needed to tell the story of the season. With this in hand we worked in the back end to make sure we didn’t overwhelm the browser with data, which would lead to slow, lagged performance, ultimately compromising the vision of the designers and partners. Design is also important here, with a clear and vivid design making the overall story engaging and simple to understand, while also allowing the key moments to stand out.
Building on the work of the design and back end teams, our engineers innovated with a number of different languages (including SVG to animate D3.js) to achieve the performance, responsiveness and quality that we wanted from the front end application. By using these languages in new ways we can unleash the full vision and proposal put forward in the sketches and wireframes, delivering a great experience whether you're looking on your phone or your desktop.
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