Google Maps

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=35.467626,-97.515421&spn=0.015798,0.026393&z=15&msid=109337713413355376973.0004865e2bc1767114b2c

View Downtown Oklahoma City in a larger map
View Downtown Oklahoma City in a larger map

First off, I chose to do a map of downtown Oklahoma City (Bricktown) because I lived in OKC for 3 years, and feel like I know that area better than I know SF.

Google Maps has an interesting concept, and is well programmed, but the “my maps” feature is just not developed enough by the group of users that would benefit from it most: mobile users. The most practical way to use customized map locations would be to have the locations on a smartphone, and be able to guide your way around to them using the GPS on that smartphone. The iPhone has an application for maps, but lacks the ability to view user-generated maps, as well as being able to access the part of google maps that is linked to an email/account. If users could plan a visit out in google maps, and then transfer it to their iPhone, it would make for a remarkable experience… but for now, if I were to send someone this link, they’d have to print out a map, but they wouldn’t have any of the details/links/photos about each place on the map… defeating the purpose of My Maps for the mobile user. Ideally, would like to give the locations that I made to anyone I know that might visit Oklahoma City, but when they get there, they aren’t likely to have a printer to print out a map, or be able to carry around a laptop to guide them about.

One interesting use for the user-generated maps is that it could be used to plan out a road trip, especially with multiple cars. That way every driver could know exactly where to drive to, and in what order, and where there’s gas stations along the way.

Interactive Information Visualization

2008/2009 Photoshoots on Dipity.

Dipity is in my opinion very time consuming and not worth it for the average person. I used it to create a timeline of my photoshoots for last season, which creates a "cool" visual... but I doubt that anyone would care to take a look at my timeline more than once unless i was some sort of public figure. The software had some glitches which made things more frustrating, such as the same event showing up multiple times, one of them on the wrong date. The timeline concept could be used for news sites and historical visualization of things that matter to humanity such as historical points in national histories, civil rights movements, art technique progression, etc. The site is fairly "web 2.0" in the sense that it can import photos into the events by using only html links, and can link the locations to google maps. The timeline arranges the event bubbles well, but could still be better, using the capabilities of flash and 'mouse over' functions to expand each even without clicking, and making the default view less cluttered for a large quantity of events over a small period of time. Dipity could be used by the school systems to lay out key dates (drop class deadline, fees deadline, class registration times), and i think that that would be very useful... but i think that the most useful thing that Dipity could create is a way to export timelines from the internet into programs like iCal which can be synced up with a personal computer or mobile device.