The Inside Scoop of Ben & Jerry's is an in-depth look at the 98 different ice
cream
flavors offered by Ben & Jerry's around the world. It is an extensive deep dive into Ben &
Jerry’s base
flavors (chocolate, vanilla, etc.), additions (cookie dough, brownies, etc.), type (dairy,
non-dairy,
etc.), and country.
Additionally, it looks at the combination of these attributes. Which additions
are more
likely to appear in chocolate ice cream? Does the U.S. have different taste preferences from
those in
other regions? This light hearted visualization will have you screaming for ice cream!
Challenge
The most challenging part of this project was ensuring all pieces from end to
end
lived up to
our vision, as this project was our first time creating a web-based visualization. We wanted to
find the
best way to tell an engaging, joyful story, but had to balance that with creating a user
experience that
worked across devices and browsers.
For example, we used a circle for each of the 98 flavors. We wanted to
transition the
position of the circle between each section. However, we noticed the performance lagged
occasionally and
scrolling too fast would break the visualization.
We had to figure out how Canvas worked, and how it worked with D3.js, in order
to fix
the speed. All in all, we faced a lot of challenges as we navigated the complexities of the web,
but we
learned a lot doing it!
