Aaron Koblin

Josh Hill Interaction Design Overview 2.10.2015

Aaron Koblin

One of today’s most well known and respected visualizers of data, Aaron Koblin has taken the task of processing basic and mundane data found in everyday events, and turned that information into something visually captivating. With a fresh, innovative approach, Koblin has taken data analytics to a new level by turning his projects into informative works of art that leverage the power of crowdsourcing, collaboration, and the study of human behavior.

Typically, the primary goal of data visualization is to communicate information clearly and efficiently to users via a system of information graphics and visual communication, such as tables and charts. Effective visualization helps users

Immediately following he continued on to receive his Masters degree in Design|Media Arts from UCLA. Shortly after graduation in 2006, Koblin went on to work as a Design Innovator at one of the largest tech companies born in the dot com era: Yahoo. Just a year and a half later he was the Creative Director of the Data Arts team, in the Creative Lab at Google. Today Koblin is still at Google where he combines his innovative approach to data visualization with the power and resources he has at his disposal within

For their participation, each individual was compensated 0.02 ($USD) per illustration. After 40 days Koblin had collected 10,000 sheep that were used to create the piece and a wealth of data to visualize. He gleaned that the average time spent on the task was 105 seconds, the shortest of which was 4 seconds and longest was 46 minutes. This illustrates the dramatic difference in dedication and motivation for the same compensation of two cents. Sheep were collected at a rate of eleven per hour, resulting in an average wage of