More time

If I had more time I would definitely like to adopt the style of using a palate full of colours, add a key and divide maps into categories and maybe introduce some new features, something to do with typography. It would surely give a more interesting and new-fangled look.
I feel the coding of the websites requires a quick clean up. The code side appears to be pretty messy as I was testing and trying different styles and layouts to see which suited best and later didn’t get time to go through the details.
I see this project as a result of my educational interest and daily experiments. For some users the navigation and understanding of the site appeared easy and straight forward however some seemed baffled cause the site is divided into some educational and some experimental maps. From time to time I have tried my best, adding all the missing links which would help user follow the site.

Digg Labs - 365

365
Digg's application presented by McDonald's
There is no description on the application but I assume that its picking up on stories/news depending on dates and time which is being displayed using a connecting calendar.

Digg Labs - Arc

Arc
Project by Digg Lab
Though stories are arranged using ARC I think this works great as a site map. The loops connecting to relevant sources. Visually its very attractive and stories keep on adding up, adding more colour and loops to the centre. One of my favourite applications.I find the idea of connecting content within each other the most exciting things.

Newsmap

Newsmap is an application which picks up Google news and reflects visually.
“Google News automatically groups news stories with similar content and places them based on algorithmic results into clusters. In Newsmap, the size of each cell is determined by the amount of related articles that exist inside each news cluster that the Google News Aggregator presents. In that way users can quickly identify which news stories have been given the most coverage, viewing the map by region, topic or time. Through that process it still accentuates the importance of a given article.”(http://marumushi.com/projects/newsmap)

http://newsmap.jp/

I didn’t use much colour in ‘Face maps’ however there is a touch of colour in ‘Descriptive mapping’. On ‘Face maps’ you can see some bold point are rest normal size and this is reflecting the dark features of the face, so where I found boldness in pictures I have highlighted those areas (for example- corner of eyes).

Digg Lab

Labs Digg - Bigspy/

This is like Digg's own Twitter space. All the feeds are displayed on a page. The hotter the topic, the bolder is displays. Number of digs are shown in red at the end of every story/news. Latest stories are shown on top of the page. The news move so quickly out of screen that I personally find hard to keep track of them. By the time I reach to end of a line its already gone. It's Digg's own live news visualizer.

Final Web Design

Mind Mapping

What’s the relationship between brain and mind? Is mental illness physical condition rather than sickness of the soul? Would it be possible to make a complete brain map that tells us different functions of different brain parts and their relationships? It just scares me what we call ‘spiritual experience’ might be actually heavily related to physical conditions of brain.

Rita Carter, 2006, Mapping the mind, http://interactive.usc.edu/members/doox/archives/2006/02/, Date Accessed – July, 2010

Mapping

Benefits and Uses
I think I already gave away the benefits of mind mapping and why mind maps work. Basically, mind mapping avoids dull, linear thinking, jogging your creativity and making note taking fun again.
But what can we use mind maps for?
• Note taking
• Brainstorming (individually or in groups)
• Problem solving
• Studying and memorization
• Planning
• Researching and consolidating information from multiple sources
• Presenting information
• Gaining insight on complex subjects
• Jogging your creativity

How to Draw a Mind Map
Drawing a mind map is as simple as 1-2-3:
• Start in the middle of a blank page, writing or drawing the idea you intend to develop. I would suggest that you use the page in landscape orientation.
• Develop the related subtopics around this central topic, connecting each of them to the centre with a line.
• Repeat the same process for the subtopics, generating lower-level subtopics as you see fit, connecting each of those to the corresponding subtopic.

Luciano Passuello, 2007, What is Mind Mapping? , http://litemind.com/what-is-mind-mapping/, Date accessed July, 2010

Internet Mapping

The Internet Mapping Project was started at Bell Labs in the summer of 1998. Its goal is to acquire and save Internet topological data over a long period of time. This data has been used in the study of routing problems and changes, DDoS attacks, and graph theory.

Bill Cheswick, 1998, Internet Mapping Project: Map gallery, http://www.cheswick.com/ches/map/gallery/index.html, Date accessed July, 2010

Facial reflex zones

This face map shows certain areas of the face that directly correlate with the body. According to Eastern medicine, professional massage in certain areas of the face can release toxins by concentrating on specific areas to create better health.

Jim Whimpey, 2010, Face mapping – the inside scoop, http://bewellnowjournal.com/, Date accessed July, 2010

Our Face

Image from a photography studio, I think it will help me create face maps. Thewhole face is divided into sections and using the same technique I can created dotted face map.

Take 2 Hair and Photography Studio, Dermalogica Fame Mapping, http://www.take2studio.co.uk/wp/?page_id=77, Date accessed July, 2010

Design stage 1

Festival

While browsing the Internet came across this which made me feel I’m not the only one mapping things around infect this is a flyer to a festival. Feels like I found myself a community.

Luma Launisch, 2007, Some flyers: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=103770349&blogId=267738731, Date accessed July, 2010.

Supernova for iPad Demo Gallery

Link to a video on Supernova http://glennmarshall.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/supernova-for-ipad-demo-gallery/

My Maps

My final Sky Map (Map of Messier objects and Constellation including constellation titles)


Constellation Map


Messier Map


Constellation titles’ Map

Sky Maps

I collected many Sky Maps and here are two of the final ones I was working on. Each map is made up of 11-12 images been put together. These are the most accurate and complete maps I found at one place and therefore decided to use them for ‘Map Frame’.


Custer Institute and Observatory, Sky Map, http://www.custerobservatory.org/docs/messier2.pdf, Viewed 15 January 2010.


Custer Institute and Observatory, Sky Map, http://www.custerobservatory.org/docs/messier2.pdf, Viewed 15 January 2010.

Previous Research

These are some of the pictures I used in order to create maps. I used them for another module last semester to help me create 3D sphere- layers of maps.


Webtext, Constellation Map, USA, http://orcapress.com/, Viewed 15 January 2010.


Webtext, Constellation Map, USA, http://orcapress.com/, Viewed 15 January 2010.


Sky-map-grid-const, Grid Map, http://my.sky-map.org/images/sky-map-grid-const.gif, Viewed 15 January 2010.


Constellations, 20 Constellations, http://www.cosmosapparel.com/Images/Constellations.jpg, Viewed 15 January 2010.


CONST19B, Messier Object, http://www.astropix.com/HTML/WIDE/CONST19.HTM, Viewed 15 January 2010.