Overview
This is a map of every piece of traffic that hastraversed though a single website in the lasttwo years. The map was generated byanalyzing the Apache log data from the site.
All traffic within the website travels clockwise.Thicker lines mean more traffic. The color of traffic leaving a page matches thecolor of the section it is going to.The color of traffic entering a page matchesthe color of the section it came from.
Original Goals
The original goal of analyzing log data andgenerating visuals was to create an IA feedbacktool. By looking at how users travel through asite, one can use statistical models to derive thesite’s hierarchy as the user perceives it. Thishierarchy can be compared to the intendedstructure of the site, and the informationarchitect can start to make informed decisionsas to whether there is a problem with the IA ofthe site or not.
Process
This map was generated byloading the Apache log data into a MySQLdatabase. The database is used to populate aset of PHP objects, which then generate a PDFfile.
This is a map of every piece of traffic that hastraversed though a single website in the lasttwo years. The map was generated byanalyzing the Apache log data from the site.
All traffic within the website travels clockwise.Thicker lines mean more traffic. The color of traffic leaving a page matches thecolor of the section it is going to.The color of traffic entering a page matchesthe color of the section it came from.
Original Goals
The original goal of analyzing log data andgenerating visuals was to create an IA feedbacktool. By looking at how users travel through asite, one can use statistical models to derive thesite’s hierarchy as the user perceives it. Thishierarchy can be compared to the intendedstructure of the site, and the informationarchitect can start to make informed decisionsas to whether there is a problem with the IA ofthe site or not.
Process
This map was generated byloading the Apache log data into a MySQLdatabase. The database is used to populate aset of PHP objects, which then generate a PDFfile.
The circular form is used because a straightline can not easily communicate direction atthe scale of this map, and it is difficult to showinformation in both directions. Here alltraffic runs clockwise, enters at the bottom ofthe page, and exits at the top on the page.
