IronViz Edition: 7 Gaming Themes for your Tableau Iron Viz Qualifiers
7 Gaming Themes for your Tableau Iron Viz Qualifiers
In March 2020 like most of the world, I was stuck at home. Social distancing was everyone's new hobby, funny enough we'd been doing it for years in Suffolk. That's the first time you can consider the countryside of Suffolk was ahead of the times!
While searching for a better pastime than drinking every evening away, I found my old Xbox console. I dusted down the black box, unravelled the controller, connected it to a TV, and I was taken back 20 years. So many memories came back, the adventures I had, the funny glitches, and all those times I thought I'd outsmarted the game.
My love of games then collided with my interest in data visualisation. I was developing my skills with Tableau and thought I would share the games I love to play. too This eventually lead to the start of #GamesNightViz, a community project combining data and games. Now with Tableau's Iron Viz 2023 qualifier competition underway for October 2022 here are some games-related themes from my portfolio.
Introduce It to Your Audience
To have a broader appeal you have to assume your audience won't have played the game. It's important to capture their attention, to understand what the game is about and why it's worth their time. Prices for Pokemon cards were hitting new highs. However, I knew many people wouldn't know what they were, let alone why anyone would pay over $2000 for a piece of cardboard. I put together an introduction with Google Trends data to back up my statement about the hype for these cards.
Bring Your Perspective
If you've played the game, share that experience with your audience. You have so much insight you can bring to the data that will differentiate your work from others and make for a better user experience. Pokemon was a game I played regularly on long car trips around Suffolk, it was just so fun to build a team and go on an adventure. Recently I found my old Gameboy with my last team still saved, so I recreated the journey I went on with that team and the decisions I made.
Put the User in the Story
Games are fun because the user is in control but you as the builder can create intriguing ways to tell the story. You would be much more interested in data that relates to you, it's why news sites are so popular. In chess, we're typically in control of our pieces but for Life Expectancy in Chess, I changed the point of view. The user is enlisted to become a chess piece for a Grandmaster match. The data has more of an impact when you have a 35% chance of surviving, rather than saying a pawn has a 35% survival rate. Makes you pay a bit more attention eh?
Take Design Inspiration From the Game
Games have a lot of style to them, which you can incorporate into your data visualisation. Many game images are available under creative commons. Custom game fonts are typically available however, these won't render in Tableau so bring these in as an image. For my dashboard sharing match results from Halo, I styled it to look like the menu system from Halo the Master Chief Collection. I used custom fonts and images for navigation buttons and embed YouTube videos for the backgrounds. Sometimes the videos don't load, if you see "this video is unavailable" then select quit and try again.
Be Curious
If a question perks your interest, it's likely other people will be interested too. This curiosity can lead you to develop new skills. For example, I wanted to understand the different colours of Pokemon and ended up building a script to cluster colours from image files to create:
Movement Catches Eyes
Animation can lift your work to new levels, much like adding salt to a dish, and similarly too much animation can overpower a data visualisation. Recently I've experimented with animation and games and here are a few examples:
- Unveiling the Data
- Give Drama
- Recreating Games
Start With Gameplay but End With a Story
Games are portals to different worlds and perspectives. They are super fun and can really engage your audience. While you've got their attention you can now tell your data story and that takeaway message to your audience. With Interpreting Art, the game was a comical way to start but it was the gateway to the story. The game elements were tactfully used so my audience became more invested in the data and the message I was communicating. For example, you needed to complete the game before you see the data and the story, effectively there was a reward for the time the user spent.
These have been some themes from my portfolio, if you'd more inspiration on games and data visualization check out the #GamesNightViz roundups, where you'll find games-related challenges, datasets, and plenty of inspiring vizzes from the community!
