NBA Team Playoff Record (Physical Visualization)
When a group of people discusses sports stats, a pen and a piece of paper can help them illustrate their ideas: the first one provides its thoughts, and if someone does not agree, they can just redraw or edit it easily. The interactive and convenience of this handcraft chart are totally different from the visualizations on the screen. That is why I want to have this project, building a physical visualization to give another experience to the reader.
I want to build something to challenge those NBA fans, so I collected thirty NBA teams’ playoff records for the past twenty years and labeled them with the number. If the team got into the playoffs and ended up in the first round, then I would label the “one” for this team. If it ended up in the second round, the conference semifinal, I would label it “two.” Three for the third round, the conference final, and “four” for the fourth round, the NBA finals. With this category labeling, I think the bar chart makes it easier to read the numbers. Now I have the data and concept, the next question is how to build it.
Considering the firmness and convenience, I used the 3D printer to make it. Each team has one stick for twenty years of playoff records, and the bar on the stick represents how far they went in each playoff. From left to right, I start from the 2002–03 season to the 2021–22 season. Also, I markered the top of the bar with the yellow crayon to highlight the championship team and wrote down the team name on the left of the stick. Finally, I made a yellow platform with fifteen slots as a physical coordinate for putting the stick on so that people can compare the playoff records between different teams. (I did not do the platform with thirty slots to put all the team sticks on it because of the size limitation of the 3D printer.)
This tangible visualization is kind of like a game and examination for NBA fans. Since the team name is not written obviously, people can guess the team by the playoff records. If you are a die-hard fan of a team, you may easily get your stick.
