DCIT422: Information
Visualization
Session 1 – Introduction
By
Solomon Mensah (PhD)
College of Education
School of Continuing and Distance Education
2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Outline
• Introduction
• Scientific vs Information Visualization
• History
• Examples
• Workflow / Pipeline
• Resources
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Health &Medicine
Records of Human Activity
Introduction
• Define and illustrate Information Visualization
• Graphics
– Communicate an idea
– Create or discover an idea
• Using vision to think
• Computers
– Dynamic, real-time, interactivity.
External Cognition
• The role of external world in thought and
reasoning.
• External Aids can enhance cognition
• Examples:
– Multiplication Aids
– Navigation Charts
– Diagrams
Multiplication Aids
125
x 14
500
+1250
1750
• Difficult to hold partial results in memory without
special algorithms.
Navigation Charts
• Navigation device at sea.
• The earth is round, the chart is flat.
• A calculator and storage device.
– Stores earth’s irregularities
Diagrams
• Can lead to great insights or lack of.
• Decision to launch challenger.
– Presentation obscures variable of interest (temperature)
• Display massive data (gene expression)
Definitions
• Visualization:
– “The use of computer-supported, interactive, visual
representations of data to amplify cognition.”
– Goal: discovery, decision making, explanation
• Data visualization
– the process of converting raw data into easily understood
pictures of information that enable fast and effective decisions.
• Information Visualization:
– “The use of computer-supported?, interactive, visual
representations of abstract data to amplify cognition.”
Difference Between Scientific and
Information Visualization
• Scientific
– Relates to and represents visually physical things (eg.
Mountains, Human Body)
• Information Visualization
– Represent data in abstract forms
Scientific Visualization
•Visualization: converting raw data to a form that is
viewable and understandable to humans.
• Scientific visualization: specifically concerned
with data that has a well-defined representation in
2D or 3D space (e.g., from simulation mesh or
scanner).
*Adapted from The ParaView
Tutorial, Moreland
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Information visualization
• Information visualization: concerned with data that
does not have a well-defined representation in 2D or
3D space (i.e., “abstract data”).
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Pre-history
• Selected figures
– William Playfair (1821) – line, bar charts, etc.
– Charles Joseph Minard (1869) – Napoleon’s march, etc.
– Jacques Bertin (1967) – “semiology of graphics”
– John Tukey (1977) – “exploratory data analysis”
– Edward Tufte (1983) – statistical graphics standards/practices
• 1985 NSF Workshop on Scientific Visualization
• 1990: S.K.Card, et al. Readings in Information Visualization:
Using Vision to Think
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Cognitive Amplification
• Knowledge Crystallization
– Gather information
– Makes sense of it by constructing a schema
– Package into communication or action
Cognitive Amplification
• Visualization Amplifies Cognition
– Larkin and Simon study
1. Increase memory and processing resources
2. Reduce information searching
3. Enhance detection of patterns
4. Enable perceptual inference operations
5. Use perception attention for monitoring
6. Encode information in a manipulative medium
Examples
l Network visualization
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Examples
l Geo data
mapping
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Examples
• Treemap
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Examples
• Circle chart
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Examples
l Population
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Bertin’s 7 Visual Variables
• Seven Visual Variables
– position
– form
– orientation
– color
– texture
– value
– size
• combined with a visual semantics for linking data attributes to visual elements
Bertin’s Original Visual Variables
Slide 23
Info vis workflow / pipeline
• Acquire
• Parse
• Filter
• Mine
• Represent
• Refine
• Interact
* Adapted from Fry, Visualizing Data
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Info vis workflow / pipeline
• Acquire
[p. 7, Fry, Visualizing Data]
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Info vis workflow / pipeline
• Parse
[p. 8, Fry, Visualizing Data]
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Info vis workflow / pipeline
• Filter/Mine
[p. 10, Fry, Visualizing Data]
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Info vis workflow / pipeline
• Represent
[p. 10, Fry, Visualizing Data]
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Info vis workflow / pipeline
• Refine
[p. 12, Fry, Visualizing Data]
Introduction to Information Visualization - Fall 2013
Thank you
Slide 32
