Visualizing the Elder Scrolls Lore
Dan IvancicHCI 530: Data Visualization
Not understanding the game world detracts from the play experience.
Rationale
Reading large amounts of in-game texts can:• Be Inconsistent (books are spread across the world – hard to know what a book is about)• Be Boring• Take up play time
Condensed histories are available online but are still only text.
A visual display can provide a streamlined learning experience - allowing the player to gain familiarity with the world and as a result have a more inviting and rewarding play experience.
Presenting the Data
History: Individual Events at points in Time and SpaceEvents Time Space
Need to design or find a format to cleverly encompass these aspects
Searched for examples of visualizations dealing with the this type of data
Presenting the Data
History: Individual Events at points in Time and SpaceTime SpaceEvents
Maps and images are combined
Graphics alternate between telling story and providing imagery Structure is not well defined
Panes separate aspects effectively
Time is estimated (balance of interval/ordinal)
Color labels allow events to share a map but are not consistently used
Images add information and allow for quick glancing
Time is separated into blocks of 500 years- specific dates are omitted in favor of simplicity
Color coding is consistently used for every event that appears on a map