Today we worked with a Rick and Morty API!
The day did not start smoothly as our original task was to use a Breaking Bad API, however, the domain was no longer in use, so we changed over to a Rick and Morty API. A bit of a bumpy start, but we got straight to working.
The Ask
Today's ask was less design focused and more data prep focused. The only instruction for today was to specifically use the API. Although it had been sometime since I had worked with APIs, I did not feel overwhelmed (especially since I had a lot previous work saved to look back on).
Wireframe
Today's wireframe had to be very focused because the data prep took a lot of the time. I needed to know exactly which fields I needed and in what format as soon as possible. Well documented APIs have a lot of information and that can be a blessing and a curse. Scoping as soon as possible is the best thing you can do to help yourself in the process of producing your work.
Data Prep
As you can see in my Alteryx flow below, there was a lot of time spent in data prep.
One of the main positives of this project was that I was able to get a lot of more practice in regex. Regex is a tool in which the more you practice it, the better you get. I felt a lot more confident this time around (as you can see in how many times the tool was used).
The top section is the API call for just location information and the section under is for character information. The process was very similar for both API calls, except for few differences. Also the second time around in doing the same process I discovered more efficient ways to achieve my desired results faster. That ties into the positives of projects like these, the more you practice, the better you get and the more you discover.
Dashboard
The bumpy start in the morning dominoed into the afternoon when it came to building the dashboard. I did not have a lot of time left to create the dashboard and as I was building it, a lot of things were going awry.
See my final dashboard here: RickAndMorty
Presentation
As all presentations this week, the atmosphere was casual, so there was not too much stress for this section. I was not very proud of my work, so I was happy I went second and just got it done as soon as possible. Regardless, I did two things to "distract" from my final deliverable: I spent most of my presentation going through my data prep and the bumps in the road I ran into as well as a lot of time explaining my vision.
This was by far the hardest day (probably because it was the middle of a very demanding week) and burnout was creeping in. As usual, I need to remind myself: At the end of the day I achieved in answering my question: Where did Morty (and his different versions) travel to?
Hope you enjoyed reading about my experience and see you tomorrow for my next blog for Dashboard Week Day 3.