C°F Experiments: Learning and Growing Through Experimentation
“Experiments open up new avenues to explore and help us demonstrate the value we add.” — Thomas Clever
For a long time, we here at CLEVER°FRANKE have been working on a number of self-initiated projects. Eventually, we decided to collect them all on a single platform to give an overview of these experiments and to show you our explorations. In this article, I will share the value of conducting experiments for both our team and our clients, and hopefully trigger your curiosity for new topics, tools and methods.
There are often moments of downtime within project, while we wait on feedback from clients. To make good use of this time, we invest our own time in learning new tools and developments in the field of data, design and technology. This, of course, ignites questions in our minds. We start thinking about how to improve our current client projects and possibilities for starting new projects from scratch, where we can implement our learnings. More importantly, we form hypotheses that have high potential to enrich our skill set and portfolio. Once the questions in our minds turn into hypotheses, we start testing them. This is a great way to see how things actually work and you’ll be surprised by the results and how quickly you get them.
Starting the experiment
Naturally, it is not feasible to start testing every idea that comes to mind. We first organize our thoughts by coming up with concepts that we find interesting to explore. These concepts seem initially like clusters, but once we start delving into new areas, we often find that these clusters actually form a meaningful whole.
After deciding which concept to focus on, we start looking for different visualization techniques and tools that best suit turning this concept into a tangible story. Our Creative Coder Jonas gave his view on this process:
The hard part is to mix and mash up these different visualization methods into one, and of course, actually building the concept into code. While coding, I always try to enhance the concept by adding features that only code can supply, such as transitions, interaction and synergy between different elements (action/reaction), making the overall experience more coherent.
The freedom of choosing the methods and tools by which we want to learn makes experimenting very exciting. Not only because we learn how to use these tools, but also because the process of learning new things develops more organically during experimenting. Our creative coder and data analyst Agathe says:
The value of an experiment is not to have delivered something in the end, but the path you took to drive it to the end. An experiment can be a failure, and it doesn’t matter because the boundaries of an experiment are very wide in terms of both creativity and technicality.
What we gain from experimentation
Experimenting is a great opportunity to see what we need to improve so we work better as a team. With each experiment, we become faster at finding solutions and more confident in taking unexplored paths. Eventually, these paths cross each other, helping us learn in depth about a certain field. So far, we’ve delved into sensors and AI through our experiments and harnessed these technologies around several topics such as sports, lifestyle, smart living and climate. This way, we uncover the added value we can offer in different domains.
While helping us become more daring to dive into unknown fields, experiments also make us cautious from a technical point of view. We turn the uncertainties of these projects into an advantage to be prepared for possible issues. Our software developer Wilco remarks:
To be able to spot potential problems early and know how to design around the limitations of technology is key to the success of any project.
Sometimes we also need to be more than just cautious about the potential technical problems. It is therefore equally important to understand and accept that data will not give all the answers, or not always the correct answers. Through experimenting, we have changed our approach towards data and developed creative ways to deal with the imperfect nature of it, as Agathe says:
Experimenting with data showed me the fragility of it. Whether you gather data yourself or you use open data, there will always be inconsistencies, typos, fill-in errors, conversion errors, irregularities, downtimes etc. You have to learn to work with data sources that are not perfect and try to make the most out of it! It also taught me that sometimes the data says something different than you expect. And this is perfectly fine.
Turning these gains into business values
Ultimately, these experiments are hugely valuable not only to C°F, but to our clientele as well. As we expand our portfolio, our clients have more reference points to envision what kind of result they expect us to deliver. When clients approach us, they mostly have a favorite work in their mind that they see on our portfolio. Although it is always very flattering when our projects attract new business opportunities, we also want to prove to our clients that we continuously try new things and want to provide them something beyond what they can imagine. Our USA director and Principal Designer Bob explains:
Through these experiments we can show our clients what else is possible and inspire them to see new ways in which their data can be leveraged. As a thought-leader in the field of data visualization, our clients expect nothing less of us.
Besides enhancing our existing client relationships, experiments help us prove ourselves in completely new fields and attract new clients. For example, after completing our BMX Ride Visualization experiment, we were able to get in contact with The Royal Dutch Cycling Federation (KNWU) to create a live data visualization of their National BMX Freestyle Park Championships. Our vision for adding a new dimension to the live experience of sports, combined with the skill set that we gained in our experiments on this topic created this great opportunity for us. This project eventually helped us gain recognition from our peers and attracted wider publicity.
Conclusion
If you want to be inspired by our experiments, learn about new methods, tools and fields, you can visit our C°F Experiments page. All the experiments are interactive and provide new perspectives and technical details with reference points. We will keep adding new experiments to stay up-to-date with new technologies and expand our creative and analytical skills.
