Questioning

For my Graphic Design 2 class we studied infographics and data visualizations. We looked at many examples and it became clear that there was one deciding factor in its success, did it balance the need for aesthetics while also presenting information?
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For my data set I knew that I wanted to rely on mostly quantitive data to avoid as much human error as possible. When I decided what to research I looked at the tools I had available and then formulated a question. I borrowed my mother's smart watch and set out to record how my heart rate reacts to certain locations, activities, and social interactions.

Tracking

The watch tracked my BPM and stress levels throughout the day so that takes care of two categories already. For my activity, location, and social interaction data points I manually tracked them using the notes app on my phone. 
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After my tracking day I compiled all of my information into a google sheet file. Honestly tracking with the watch was too much of a good thing as it recorded a data point for my BPM every 2 minutes and my stress level every 3 (aside from the times its readings were inconclusive). I averaged those data points for every activity and if the activity lasted longer than an hour, I averaged it for every hour of the activity. For the sake of legibility and sanity I color coded my data which ended up influencing my visual design of my project.

Sketching

Since I was tracking my activity throughout the day I had an idea to make the visual presentation mimic the day night cycle. I implemented a series of pie chart rings which each represented a different category with the stress and BPM points represented as line graphs surrounding them.

I tried other methods of representation but sometimes your first idea is really your best. The others had trouble encompassing all the categories or were visually dull. I wanted the viewer to understand the data immediately upon first look and nothing can quite represent time as effectively as a clock.

I divided the clock into 24 sections, one for each hour of the day, and then further divided each section into 15 minute increments.

Final Design

During the creation process I ended up simplifying my data and rounding data points for the sake of visual clarity. If this were an interactive project I would've created hover states for each of piece of data going into more detail (example: hovering over the physical activity section from 12pm -1pm would've shown that I was working out at the time) but too much information would've been overwhelming.

I'm satisfied with the result of my project and honestly kinda wished I had my old statistics teacher's email so I could show her that it's possible to make an aesthetically impressive graph without misleading the audience.