Plutz

The homepage of our project dataplay, a datavizualisation about our solar system.

What was the project about

Dataplay is a workshop about data vizualisation. We were asked to build an experimentation about real data. It also had to be playful. It was our first workshop at school since the lockdown, which was as weird as exciting.

Dataplay was very special to me because it was the first time we met with other students since the lockdown.

One thing that made me choose the web was this energy when you stand in a room with other people, heating up your brains to solve problems together. So I was glad to start this workshop.

My role

So, back at it. For this workshop, Caroline asked me to join her team. We ended with Caroline, Angie, and Florent, which was really cool because we all had different strengths and weaknesses.

Florent was a beast in JavaScript, Carolinedesigned all the prototypes with the help of Angie, and Angie and I were in charge of the HTML structure plus find the libraries we were going to use.

A view of the solar system in our project.

We looked for information about Swiper.js and GSAP, to understand how these libraries work.

At the same time, we were also experimenting, to be able to explain the documentation to Caroline and Florent, this way they would not waste time.

While we explained the libraries to Florent & Caroline, we also created the HTML structure of the website, focusing on the semantic.

The result

After 4 weeks of hard work, we finally released Colors. Caroline and Aude made an amazing work for the art direction of the app, putting their skills together to design the final version. (psssst, all the shots in this case-study have been made by Aude, go check her work here. )

We were a bit stressed until the end because we struggled with the drag and drop interaction, but Maxime nailed the development, searching again and again for new ways to implement this interaction, without giving up.

Overview of a planet in the application, with all the data included.

Success & failures

I was very satisfy about the result. I had a good time working with the team, we had ups and downs, but we had a good energy and stayed united.

Most important, we didn't simplify our interface, we solved every challenge, and we came out grown up, with more self-confidence.

I'm glad I worked well with the team, although I could have been a little more regular at work.

We also ended up using GSAP & Swiper.js libraries, whitout knowing these before, and I am proud of the work we have done with these tools in a very short time.