Foundations of Data Visualization
Source: eazybi
Source: Ranganathan et al. 2014
Source: datameer.com
Source: “Perpetual Plastic” by Liina Klauss, Skye Morét & Moritz Stefaner
Source: “Patchwork Kingdoms” by Nadieh Bremer
“Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l’Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812–1813” by Charles Joseph Minard (1869)
“Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l’Armée qu’Annibal conduisit d’Espagne en Italie en traversant les Gaules (selon Polybe)” (top) and “Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l’Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812–1813” (bottom) by Charles Joseph Minard (1869)
“Carte figurative et approximative des quantités de coton brut importées en Europe en 1858, en 1864 et en 1865” by Charles Joseph Minard (1866)
“Carte figurative et approximative des poids des bestiaux venus á Paris sur les chemins de fer en 1862” by Charles Joseph Minard (1864)
“Tableau figuratif du mouvement commercial du Canal du Centre en 1844” by Charles Joseph Minard (1845)
“Tableau figuratif du mouvement commercial du Canal du Centre en 1844” by Charles Joseph Minard (1845)
If the year is a circle—where’s March and December in your mind?
Wheel diagram of 76,922 placements of the months of December and March on the circumference of an empty circle.
Graphics by Henrik Lied at NRKbeta. Laeng & Hofseth, Front Psychol. 2019
Proportion of respondents choosing opposite direction of time on the year’s wheel.
Graphics by Vidar Kvien, NRK. Laeng & Hofseth, Front Psychol. 2019
“Diagram of the causes and mortality in the army in the East” (a so-called coxcomb diagram) by Florence Nightingale (1858)
“Relative mortality of the army at home and of the English male population at corresponding ages” by Florence Nightingale (1858)
Source: Matejka & Fitzmaurice (2017)
“When Dmitry Kobak and Sergey Shpilkin […] analysed the results, they found that an unusually high number of turnout and vote-share results were multiples of five (eg, 50%, 55%, 60%), a tell-tale sign of manipulation.”
“When Dmitry Kobak and Sergey Shpilkin […] analysed the results, they found that an unusually high number of turnout and vote-share results were multiples of five (eg, 50%, 55%, 60%), a tell-tale sign of manipulation.”
© AVENGERS Trademark of Marvel Characters, Inc.
© AVENGERS Trademark of Marvel Characters, Inc.
→ Integrity (information)
→ Story (interestingness)
→ Goal (usefulness)
→ Visual Form (beauty)
— data quality:
→ guesstimation, precision, and failures
→ miscalculations and errors
→ incomplete data and missing values
→ summaries and aggregations
— only a subset:
→ not crime but reported crime*
→ historical or present state
* or rats, UFO sightings, …
Don’t formulate a single statement:
“The swan is white.”
Confront yourself with a falsifiable universal statement:
“All swans are white.”
Is the information conceptual or measurable?
→ Type of information: depict information schematically <> convert information into visual forms
Is the aim to explore or to explain the information?
→ Purpose of the graphic: facilitate discovery <> communicate information
Source: Koponen & Hildén, “Data Visualization Handbook” (2020), page 25
“Vertices of Visualization” by Alberto Cairo, personal communication (modified version)
“Vertices of Visualization” by Alberto Cairo, personal communication (modified version)
“Vertices of Visualization” by Alberto Cairo, personal communication (modified version)
Audience (who)
Audience (who)
Content (what)
Scheme by Andy Kirk (modified)
Scheme by Andy Kirk (modified)
Scheme by Andy Kirk (modified)
Scheme by Andy Kirk (modified)
Audience (who)
Content (what)
Evidence (how)
Take a closer look at the following three visualizations.
Source: “Yearly Fluctuations in Area of Arctic Covered by Ice” by Derek Watkins (New York Times)
Source: Dr. Robert Rohde (Tweet)
Cédric Scherer // posit::conf(2023)