information aesthetics.
On the heels of the many real-time sports visualizations that appeared alongside the recent FIFA soccer worldcup, the [usopen.org] presents an original 3D-like way of exploring the statistical data generated during all the live tennis matches of one of the most famous sports events in the world.
Users are able to select individual matches which occurred in the past or are still in progress. A "Momentum Meter" shows who is on top of the match, while a series of filters at the bottom (e.g. ace, double foult, netpoint, breakpoint, ...) allow for deeper analysis of the data. Visually, each player is distinguished by the color green or blue. Each ring represents a set, going from the inside to the outside. Each bar represents a point, with its height according to the serving speed.
Beautiful or useful?
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The real-time sports visualizations link doesn't seem to work...
For me, this falls into the pretty, but too dense to actually use, in my opinion. Provides a tutorial just to figure it out, that's not a good sign. Needs simpler views that get more complex as the user is ready to add layers. But that's me.
There is a third category between useful and beautiful in which the insight on aggregate data is only gained with some learning. I would classify most of the scientific visualization work in this category: its not necessarily easy but once you learn to use it you get something out from it that you could not get access to otherwise.