Greetings coding compatriots!
Jesse here- writing to report my thoughts on the upcoming final project. I’ve been thinking it long and hard, so much so that my mind has gotten stuck in something of a loop: Austin. Music. Local. Austin. Live. Story. Data. Austin. Music… [Repeat x 100 …]
… Bug I digress.
What is important is that I think I’ve finally found something to work with on the final project. I started by asking myself what links these things together- what ties these ideas into one solid, coherent concept that we can present. And then it came to me: the venues.
The music venues in Austin are quite literally palaces of information: they’re the sites that have held the sickest shows, served the biggest crowds, and built the communities’ history one performance at a time. These venues are an essential part of what makes Austin the Live Music Capital of the World.
It doesn’t hurt that they’re practically drowning in data- everything from past ticket sales to registered bands for upcoming events. How many times have shows been cancelled? Which venues have the best track record? Which venues are the most expensive? … The potential for data content here is massive. Graphs, charts, and tables come to mind.
Of course, they’re also an excellent source for traditional journalism. By exploring the venues, we’re able to do things like photograph the sites and chat up the visitors; an article about the venues could include feedback from show-goers or simply citizen journalism from people in-attendance.
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So what does it look like?
The page I’m proposing will depict information related to a specific music venue in Austin. The page will include several interactive elements, using data to tell a story about the venue. These elements could be graph lines showing growth, ticket sales, annual number of shows, etc. In addition to this content, the page will include some sort of other visual aid such as an infographic or photography slideshow to depict the history of the specific venue. I would like the page to be visually appealing while at the same time educating the audience.
(Random) I’ve been really digging infographics lately- I think they’re a fantastic way to portray a great deal of information without inundating the viewer with text. Although it would require some extra time to put together, I would like to utilize this type of story form to tell a story about a venue: the history, the shows, the changes, etc. It could serve as supplementary material for the page.
The page would also contain an article write-up of this information, clearly explaining the material and citing the sources for the data. It would, of course, point the visitor to the official website of the venue (and perhaps a schedule) to help drive interested people to direct content.
This is, obviously, still a work in-progress. Brainstorming. As I continue to develop the direction and orientation of this idea, I’ll update this post with relevant information. Likewise- I’m working on putting together a mock-up example of a page using a simple Bootstrap layout. I’ll post that here when it is complete.
Regardless, let me know what you think and whether or not this idea has a place within our group project! Criticism and feedback welcome!
Warm Regards,
Jess