Hi guys, I am in my first year - second semester. I have been doing a lot of reading around my area (big data visualisation) however, I slowly came to realise at the near end of semster 1 that no coherent ideas are forming. Depsite all my tries and reading.
So I played this smartly, I started looking at a different branch (big data security). I found great ideas are forming, objectives etc. And I found a coherent gap.
Is this type of shift of subtopic, though still under the same branch a good move? Does it show you're learning about the subject area? My supervisor is ill and I haven't been in contact with for a while. Hoping next week. He is however interested in both visualisation and security.
I found myself in a endless loop with visualisation.

How big of a change is it? Most people's PhD changes through the course of 3 years as the work develops. Like, I greatly simplified my project and focused on a particular concept, as otherwise the experiments would be impossible. You will need to refer to your proposal and see how you can link it with the new topic. If it is a sub-topic in the same overall field with some cross-over you might be ok. Otherwise if it is a big jump you will need to check your funding source.