The document discusses the process of data visualization, including formulating questions, familiarizing with the data, developing designs, constructing visualizations, and evaluating/refining. Key aspects covered are the data layer, layout/placement, color/background, animation/interaction, and annotation layer. Guidance is provided on choosing appropriate encodings and ensuring visualizations are accessible, consistent, and help answer questions for the intended audience. The goal is to create visualizations that reduce cognitive load and convey information clearly through careful design.

1. The data visualisation
pre-marathon
team talk

2. http://v2.centralstory.com/about/squiggle/

3. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
The holy trinity of the
reader, data and designer
Noah Illiinsky and Julie Steele in ‘Designing Data Visualizations’

4. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
EXPLORE: facilitate reasoning of data EXPLAIN: convey information to others
Analysis Answer questions/Inform
Familiarise with data Learn/Increase knowledge
Support graphical calculation Contextualise data
Find patterns/Find no patterns Present arguments
Discover questions Assist with decisions
Interact Shape opinion
Persuade
Emphasize issues
Tell a story
Inspire
Shock/Make an impact
Enlighten
Change behaviour
Entertain
Art/Aesthetic pleasure

5. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
Audience size? One, group, www
Audience type? Domain experts, general
Parameters? Timescales, live/one-off
Detail? Headlines, detail, explore
Capabilities? Design, technical, technology
Format? Static, presentation, poster, interactive
Rules? Structure, layout, style, colour

6. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
What questions are you hoping to
answer through this visualisation?
What questions should users/readers
be able to answer through this visualisation?

7. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
http://datavisualization.ch/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Image_2.png

8. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
Prepare your data
- Examine and clean
- Transform and consolidate
Explore and become familiar with the data’s
characteristics
- Patterns
- Range and distributions
- Outliers
- Identify data types

9. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
Categorical or =
Apples, oranges, bananas ≠
Nominal
=
≠
Ordinal Grades A+, A, A-, B+,B, B- >
<
Dates, geo-coordinates =
Quantitative Interval ≠
(relative - zero arbitrary)
>
<
The value is £2000 +
Quantitative Ratio
(absolute - zero fixed) -

10. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/resources/

11. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
The anatomy of a
data visualisation
The data layer
Layout, placement and apparatus
Colour and background
Animation and interaction
The annotation layer

12. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
http://www.informationisbeautifulawards.com/2011/10/napkin-shortlist-for-the-1st-challenge/

13. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
The data layer
- Design is about choices
- Create accessibility
- Deliberate design
- Strive for form and function
Layout, placement and apparatus
Colour and background
Animation and interaction
The annotation layer

14. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
http://www.itsbeenreal.co.uk/index.php?/wwwords/literary-organism/

15. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
The data layer
- Consider encoding options
- Construct graphics to answer your question(s)
- Refine and evolve and identify new questions
Layout, placement and apparatus
Colour and background
Animation and interaction
The annotation layer

16. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
http://www.ericson.net/content/2011/10/when-maps-shouldnt-be-maps/

17. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
We’re so busy thinking about
if we can do things we forget to
consider whether we should
Amanda Cox, Graphics Editor, New York Times
http://eyeofestival.com/speaker/amanda-cox/

18. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
Length Volume
Size
Area Texture Colour Label
Direction
Brightness/Darkness Slope Position
Angle
Height Radius/Diameter
Value Speed
Shape
Curvature/Arc
Orientation Text
Transparency
Luminance Glyph
Blur/Focus Motion

19. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
Original – J. D. MacKinlay, “Automating the design of graphical presentations of relational information”, 1986 | Redesign - Joe Parry

20. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
The data layer
Layout, placement and apparatus
- Reduce cognitive overhead
- Consistency/intuitive layout
- Meaning behind placement and arrangement
- Minimise impact of chart apparatus
Colour and background
Animation and interaction
The annotation layer

21. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
The data layer
Layout, placement and apparatus
Colour and background
- “Above all, do no harm” – Edward Tufte
- Use colour to enhance and clarify a design
- Don’t obscure, shout or confuse with colour
Animation and interaction
The annotation layer

22. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
The eye is only able
to distinguish about
8 different colours
http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/6276642489/sizes/l/in/photostream/

23. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
Background colour
should help enhance
the foreground
data layer

24. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
Blue on black is not very easy for some people to discriminate
...and neither is yellow on white for most
...and don’t forget red/green colour blindness (10%)

25. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
The data layer
Layout, placement and apparatus
Colour and background
Animation and interaction
- Remember the purpose/parameters
- Technical constraints and capabilities
- Complexity of data/problem framework
The annotation layer

26. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
The data layer
Layout, placement and apparatus
Colour and background
Animation and interaction
- Variable adjustment
- View adjustment
- Animation
- Import/export data
The annotation layer

27. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
The data layer
Layout, placement and apparatus
Colour and background
Animation and interaction
The annotation layer
- Titles, labels and units
- User guide, background, context
- Legend/key
- Headlines, captions and narrative
- Sources

28. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
The annotation layer is the
most important thing we do...
otherwise it’s a case of
‘here it is, you go figure it out’
Amanda Cox, Graphics Editor, New York Times
http://eyeofestival.com/speaker/amanda-cox/

29. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
http://www.stanford.edu/group/ruralwest/cgi-bin/drupal/visualizations/us_newspapers

30. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
...you’ve started playing with the
visualization instead of debugging
... you hit some level of
engagement and it becomes really
interesting
Martin Wattenberg, "Big Picture" data visualization group, Google
http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1744741

31. Purpose and Formulate Familiarise Develop Construct Evaluate and
parameters questions with the data designs visualisation refine
You know you’ve achieved perfection
in design, not when you have nothing
more to add, but when you have
nothing more to take away
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

32. www.visualisingdata.com
andy@visualisingdata.com
@visualisingdata