Ask HN: What process should I use to present large amounts of data?

2 pointsby o_s_m13 lat temu1 comments

eg. When looking at a large table of open government data (locations, money spent, why it was spent, benefits/costs of the money spent), do you have a suggestion as to how I could aggregate all this information into several different presentable forms? Each presentable form should show different ways to interpret the data.

I am a very amateur programmer, but this project really interests me.

1 comments

contingencies13 lat temu

There is no generic answer. Who is the intended audience, and what are they hoping to see? Look carefully at the various dimensions of the data. What is the nature of the dimension? What is its scale? What is its variation? How would it best be presented? Could you use colors or shapes or sizes instead of numbers? Will the view be interactive so detail can be brought out where requested? How large is your display area? Model out some types of queries your assumed audience might think about, and use these test cases to validate and refine your approach.