Solar System Calendar

Project:
Posted:
Illustration of drag gesture.

Drag
Change time multiplier

Illustration of tap gesture.

Tap
Choose a planet to compare it with Earth

Illustration of pinch close gesture.

Pinch close
Reveal outer planets in solar view

Illustration of pinch open gesture.

Pinch open
Reveal inner planets in solar view

Gesture images by "GRPH3B18", available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Solar view

Explore our solar system! In this view you can observe the duration of a year on different planets in the solar system. Get a feeling for the distances between the planets, especially when switching to the outer solar system. Also note that the starting points of the arcs show you the current position of the planet.

User Interface of Solar System Calendar The User Interface of the Solar System Calendar displays the inner planets with distinct colors and speeds.

Day view

Click on any planet to get into the day view. Compare the selected planet with our well known Earth. Get an impression of planet sizes. The arcs visualize how long a day on a particular planet is. The colors are a representative average of real color images of the planets.

Day View Interface of Solar System Calendar The Day View of the Solar System Calendar compares the size, length of day, and color of the selected planet with Earth.

This design exercise concentrates on visualizing data or a topic without using typography or other user interface elements like buttons.

The challenge is to use only parameters like shapes, colors and positioning and still be able to communicate the information. For example, the arc representing the Earth is a bit wider, this additional clue indicates that this arc is somehow important. I chose this topic for the project out of personal interest and because I want to let people realize the enormous dimensions of space. When talking to people about this topic I often hear that it's really hard to imagine these sizes and distances. And with the project I want to inform about our solar system in an abstract way.

The project is realized with javascript mainly with D3.js. Check out the source on GitHub for details.

This project was part of my interaction design studies at HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd.
2th semester, “Programmiertes Entwerfen”.
Advisor: Prof. Jens Döring, Prof. Michael Götte