Week 10 was a mad rush of us doing work on our project and some gym sessions.
All this time I have been talking about my projects but I have actually not inserted any images in it, so here are some videos! I choose to insert videos here because our graphs are dynamic and pictures will not give them justice. Please pardon the quality of the video because I took them without the intention of sharing them.
So this video has a bar chart at the bottom that shows account balances in a community branch. When we hover the mouse over, a box appears and shows even more detailed information.
This is basically a product comparison table that looks a bit more aesthetic with the bubble. The bubble looks like it’s breathing and the size is proportional to the value of that category.
Those two were rough versions of the graphs I made. Basically, we made them with d3 on JavaScript and when people ask me “did you learn anything in ALP”, I’m quite happy to say that I did learn some stuff although they were very simple things.
Alibaba Visit
This week I managed to visit Alibaba HQ with another theme and it was very interesting to visit one of the biggest tech giants in the world here. One of the shops we visited is cashier-less and you enter by scanning a QR code and it takes a picture of your face. Here, the camera keeps track of what you pick up and put down, and when you leave, the payment is done automatically through your Alipay. Most of the items there were souvenirs and slightly expensive so I didn’t buy anything. How efficient this system is is questionable but it really is an interesting concept.
After that, we toured the area and where Jack Ma’s office is at. I snapped a nice picture of this lake they have in the HQ that overlooks some buildings. On hindsight, the HQ is actually so big that they have a river there and that’s actually quite amazing.
After this, we visited 盒马鲜生 for lunch and this supermarket is also cashierless! How they work is after you pick up your item, you visit their app and you make payment by scanning the barcode and it’s actually interesting because you can get everything fresh there. There was this seafood section where you can buy your seafood on the spot and the chefs can prepare them for you.
All in all I think Alibaba HQ was very interesting and I’m very thankful for this chance to visit it. 2 more weeks till the final presentation!
