Thank you for sharing your problem and your success. We frequently learn more from our problems than we do from our successes.
Would you mind sharing your wiring interface?
I looked at the Playground page you referenced and it was listing wiring to pin D16, D17, etc. Therefore, I assumed you need a Mega to use the interface. However, you have an Uno and that is very similar in capabilities to the Nano I use. I use the Nano because it is a little cheaper and VERY easy to breadboard.
Also, what type of display do you have? It seems there are several. The one I have allows for SPI serial interface so I can connect it to my Nano with only 3 wires (SS, MOSI, and SCK). This is great in that it gives me more pins to work with. However, the trade-off is probably speed.