2. Business
• Last formal studio
– Next week Thanksgiving
– Last studio will be an open session
• Talk to me if you think you need help
3. Review
• Effective visualization requires visual literacy
• Graphesis helps us understand visual literacy
• The visual as cultural
• The visual as irreducible—as important as the
data and content
4. Overview
Today we explore some practical tools to
develop visualizations
We look at three tools for creating visualizations
• GraphViz
• Prezi
• ManyEyes
5. GraphViz
• Free tool from AT&T to create “graphs”
– http://www.graphviz.org/
– Good PC and Mac versions
• Graph = nodes + links
– In math, these are “edges” and “vertices”
– Used by Euler to solve the “seven bridges of
Konigsburg” problem
• GraphViz uses a simple language called DOT
– Give it a graph expressed in DOT and it will generate
a nice picture using an algorithm
6. Is it possible to walk
through the city crossing
each of these bridges
once and only once?
Euler’s Solution: An even
number nodes with and
odd number of edges
means “no” …
Let land masses = nodes
and bridges = edges
7. Graphs can represent almost anything
• Social networks
• Causal chains of events (e.g. evolution)
• Texts, e.g. basic structure and narrative
structure
• Arguments
• The Internet
12. The DOT language--Nodes
A [label=""Jacob, the Scourge of Grammar, mark
with awe,nNor less revere him, Blunderbuss of
Law"" style="filled" color="green"]
A1 [label=""Jacob"" group="A" shape="ellipse"]
A2 [label=""Blunderbussnof Law"" group="A"
shape="ellipse"]
A3 [label=""Scourge of Grammar"" group="A"
shape="ellipse"]
B [label="Note 149" shape="record"]
C [label="Note 149, 150" shape="record"]
D [shape="record" label="Note 150"]
E [shape="record" label="II, Note to 226"]
13. The DOT language--Edges
A -- {A1;A2;A3}
A1 -- B
A2 -- {C;D}
A2 -- I04 [style="dashed"]
B -- {B1;B2}
B1 -- B3 [style="dashed"]
I01 -- B3 [style="dashed"]
B3 -- I03 [style="dashed"]
I01 -- A3 [style="dashed"]
C -- {I02;I08}
I02 -- I03 [style="dashed"]
I02 -- I06
I06 -- I07
I05 -- I10 [style="dashed"]
I08 -- E [style="dashed"]
E -- I09
D -- I10
14. Try it …
• Go to http://ashitani.jp/gv/#
– Start typing in the box on the left …
• To create your own, use one of these:
Mac http://www.pixelglow.com/graphviz/
Win http://wingraphviz.sourceforge.net/wingraphviz/
• Use it to create graphs and then save them as
images
• Nice tutorial here …
http://www.linux.com/archive/feed/49655?theme=print
15. Prezi
• Creates presentations based on graphs
• Allows you to throw down ideas and then
connect them
– Not the PowerPoint sequence of implied order
– PPT: worst of both worlds – both linear and non-
narrative
• Then you “play” them based on the edges you
provide
16. Prezi How-to
• Demo video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxhqD0hNx4Q
• Go to prezi.com and create an account
– http://prezi.com
• Create a presentation
– We’ll do one collaboratively …
17. Prezi’s Devices
• Nodes can be texts or images or URLs
• Nodes can by groups by frames
• Nodes can be connected by paths
• Narrative flow is accomplished through
movement and zooming in and out
18. ManyEyes
• IBM site that lets you create visualizations
with data sets
– Textual or tabular (i.e. CSV, exported Excel)
• A place to find and create data
• Tons of very cool visualizations
19. ManyEyes How-to
• Google Manyeyes
http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/
• Create an account
• Find some data—text or image
• Upload (Participate > Upload a data set)
20. ManyEyes How-to
• Get some free data from http://factual.com/
• Select “Government”
• Select “TARP Recipients”
• Export data as CSV
• Open in Excel and save as Tab delimited
• Paste into ManyEyes
• Visualize as a Bubble Chart
