3D Data Visualization Project 

For the 3D data visualization project, my group and I were required to build and design a visual representation of scientific data to portray a message in an artistic way. After many thoughts and ideas, we chose to explore the issue of homelessness in Metro Vancouver. We chose this topic because it is a problem that influences our communities within the lower mainland. As children, we grew up hearing about the rising problem of homelessness in and around the areas we live in. Yet, we never came to question some of the factors that caused this recurring issue. This project allowed us to stretch our minds and take a deep dive into the homelessness crisis. We used a report that contained government data showing the number of homeless people in areas in Metro Vancouver such as Surrey, Burnaby, and Coquitlam. However, we needed to make this project meaningful and represent it in a way that would allow others to see a connection between different problems. So, we had to introduce new factors to our main focus. We decided to research the housing prices in Metro Vancouver in connection to rates of homelessness. With this, we were able to discover that the relationship between housing prices and homelessness shows how certain areas have a higher rate of homelessness than others due to the severe prices within the housing market. In addition to this, we wanted to expand our idea by adding another factor that would benefit the outcome of the project. We decided to conduct research and collect information and data about the annual income of households in different areas of Metro Vancouver. This was done to show how some families cannot earn enough money to afford houses, which consequently leads to homelessness. Throughout the process of this project, we came across a few obstacles that led us to modify some of our ideas. We had trouble finding data sets that would be relevant to our topic, so we had to alter the type of data that we were looking for. However, we took our time to research relevant data and information that would apply to homelessness and the factors that influence it. After all the research had been collected and finalized, we began building the 3D visual of our data. We chose to represent homelessness in Metro Vancouver in relation to housing prices and average household income by creating a neighborhood design. We chose this way to represent the data because it related to the idea of housing. Each house was separated to show the different areas of Metro Vancouver, while the color of the roofs portrayed the amount of homelessness and the apple trees showed annual house income. Overall, my group and I were satisfied with the outcome of the project. Personally, I learned a great deal of information throughout the research and design processes. Homelessness is a vast problem in Vancouver that has affected and continues to affect society today.

Data:

Process:

Final Design:

Core Competency Self-Reflection: