WoOsh!Top Google search visualization

By: Ryan Hussain

Creativity + Computers ULEC 2360

Instructors: Sven Travis, Greg Podunovich

What is it?

Woosh will provide an opportunity to visualize Google’s top searches requested within the past hour, in the form of a three-dimensional tag cloud cluster.

Users will be able to perform a search for any terms listed in the visualization by simply clicking on the item inside the tag cloud.

Current Data Structure

Google has already presented information about its top searches through a Google Labs project titled “Google Trends.” The information is presented in a numbered list from order of popularity. The data is also available through an Atom feed. The data is not represented in an interesting and fun way.

• list style (numbered)• no options for changing the order• not interesting enough

Possible Structures

• Tag cloud format in three dimensions, in which the most popular search terms would be the largest in scale.

• Single item display. Avoids clutter, and allows for additional information about the search term to be displayed.

Precedents

NewsMap - http://newsmap.jp/

10x10 - http://tenbyten.org/10x10.html

Spectra - http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/components/spectra/spectra.html

Concept Layouts

Planning

Dismissed features

The application was intended to have an augmented reality element such as a marker which could be used to control the visualization (rotation, position, etc).

This added layer of interactivity, required the user to perform more actions in order to use the tool. It also confused many users, and called for additional instructions for usability.

Future Directions

Reduce the clutter of the tags by adding a feature to limit the amount of tags dipslayed (top 5, or top 10).

Add a feature to change the search location (top Google searches in Japan, France, etc).

Thank You!