This document discusses various approaches for visualizing time-oriented data and time series data. It describes common datasets that have a temporal component, such as events with associated dates and times. It then covers different visualization techniques including small multiples, time series plots, stacked graphs, static state replacement/animation, and brushing and linking. For each technique, examples are provided such as weather data visualizations, stock market charts, and visualizations of listening histories. The document also discusses combining temporal and spatial data visualization using techniques like GeoTime.

1. 1
Time-Oriented Data
Visualization
Jianping Fan
UNC-Charlotte

2. 2
Time Series Data
 Fundamental chronological component to the
data set
 Random sample of 4000 graphics from 15 of
world’s newspapers and magazines from ’74-
’80 found that 75% of graphics published
were time series
− Tufte
From John Stasko’s class slides

3. 3
Datasets
 Each data case is likely an event of some
kind
 One of the variables can be the date and time
of the event
 Examples: sunspot activity, baseball games,
medicines taken, cities visited, stock prices,
newswires, network resource measures
Partially From John Stasko’s class slides

4. 4
Time Series Visualization Approaches
 Small Multiples
 Time-Series Plot
 Stacked Graphs
 Static State Replacement (Animation)
 Brushing and linking

5. 5
Small Multiples
 Small multiples - sets of thumbnail sized
graphics on a single page
 Usage
 Enhance dimensionality
 Depict motion
 Enable comparison
 Show alternatives or range of options
 Rule
 Use the same measures and scale.
Graphics and Web Design Based on Edward Tufte's Principles,
Larry Gales, Univ. of Washington

6. 6
edwardtufte.com

7. 7
Three air pollutants in six counties in southern California
Los Angeles Times, 1979

8. 8
Mark Bulling published on Tableau Public (used without the permission of the author)

9. 9
Time Series Visualization Approaches
 Small Multiples
 Time-Series Plot
 Stacked Graphs
 Static State Replacement (Animation)
 Brushing and linking

10. 10
A Time Series Plot from Tenth Century
Inclinations of the planetary orbits as a function of time
Part of a textbook of monastery schools, tenth century

11. 11
Time Table for Trains (1885)

12. 12

13. 13
Chart of Imports and Exports (1784)

14. 14
Yahoo Finance Charts

15. AuctionExplorer
15http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/timesearcher/

16. Horizon Graph
16
Heer, Jeffrey, Nicholas Kong, and Maneesh Agrawala. "Sizing the horizon: the
effects of chart size and layering on the graphical perception of time series
visualizations." Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems. ACM, 2009.

17. Interactive Horizon Graph
 Video
17
Perin, Charles, Frédéric Vernier, and Jean-Daniel Fekete. "Interactive horizon
graphs: improving the compact visualization of multiple time
series."Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems. ACM, 2013.

18. Two tone coloring
 Saito, Takafumi, et al. "Two-tone pseudo
coloring: Compact visualization for one-
dimensional data." Information Visualization,
2005. INFOVIS 2005. IEEE Symposium on.
IEEE, 2005.
18

19. 19

20. 20

21. 21

22. 22
Pixel-Oriented Techniques
 Recursive pattern arrangements
The figure is taken from Dr. D. Keim’s tutorial notes in Infovis 00

23. 23
Pixel Oriented Techniques
 Recursive pattern arrangements
The figure is taken from Dr. D. Keim’s tutorial notes in Infovis 00

24. LastHistory
 Aplication: everyday life
 Data: listening history stored with services such as
last.fm
 Task: allow users to analyze their music listening
histories
 Metaphor: condensed line graphs
24
Baur, Dominikus, et al. "The streams of our lives: Visualizing
listening histories in context." Visualization and Computer
Graphics, IEEE Transactions on 16.6 (2010): 1119-1128.

25. LastHistory [Dominikus et al.
InfoVis 2010]
25

26. LastHistory
 Video
26
LastHistory - Interactive Visualization of Last.fm Listening Histories
and Personal Streams (vimeo)

27. 27
Spiral Graphs
History of Italian post office A. Gabaglio, 1888

28. 28
Paper: Visualizing Time-Series on
Spirals [weber et al. Infovis 01]

29. Cycle Plots
29
Robbins, Naomi B. "Introduction to Cycle
Plots." (2008).

30. Cycle Plots
30
Robbins, Naomi B. "Introduction to Cycle
Plots." (2008).

31. Cycle Plots
31
Robbins, Naomi B. "Introduction to Cycle
Plots." (2008).

32. 32
Time Series Visualization Approaches
 Small Multiples
 Time-Series Plot
 Stacked Graphs
 Static State Replacement (Animation)
 Brushing and linking

33. 33
ThemeRiver – Stacked line graphs
 Application: document analysis
 Data: temporally involving document
collections, such as news collections
 Task: reveal a macro-view of thematic
changes
 Approach: stack line graphs to form a river
Havre, Susan, et al. "Themeriver: Visualizing thematic changes in large
document collections." Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE
Transactions on 8.1 (2002): 9-20.

34. 34

35. Baby Name Voyager
 Application: everyday life
 Data: popularity of names
 Approach: Themeriver metaphor
35
http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager

36. Stacked
Graphs
36
Byron, Lee, and Martin Wattenberg. "Stacked graphs–geometry &
aesthetics."Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE Transactions on 14.6
(2008): 1245-1252.

37. EMDialog
 http://www.utahinrichs.de/emdialog/
37

38. 38
Time Series Visualization Approaches
 Small Multiples
 Time-Series Plot
 Stacked Graphs
 Static State Replacement (Animation)
 Brushing and linking

39. 39
Static State Replacement
 Treat time as a dimension hidden from the
display
 Divide time into period (time frame, or time
point)
 Generate a visualization for each time frame
 Replace a display of one time frame using
that of another time frame
 Animations, trails

40. Infocanvas
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/ii/infoart/
40

41. Gapminder Trendalyzer
 Animated bubble chart to show trends over
time in three dimensions
Hans Rosling:
No more boring data. TED (Technology,
Entertainment, Design) 2006
 Video
Gapminder World
 Demo
41

42. Visual Sedimentation
 Video
42
Huron, Samuel, Romain Vuillemot, and Jean-Daniel Fekete. "Visual
sedimentation." Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE Transactions
on19.12 (2013): 2446-2455.
http://www.visualsedimentation.org/

43. Whisper - Twitter visualization
 Application: social study
 Data: Twitter
 Task: answering when, where, and how an
idea is dispersed,
 Metaphor: Sunflower
43
Cao, Nan, et al. "Whisper: Tracing the spatiotemporal process of information
diffusion in real time." Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE Transactions
on 18.12 (2012): 2649-2658.

44. The Sunflower Metaphor
44

45. Video
45
Cao, Nan, et al. "Whisper: Tracing the spatiotemporal process of information
diffusion in real time." Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE Transactions
on 18.12 (2012): 2649-2658.

46. 46
Time Series Visualization Approaches
 Small Multiples
 Time-Series Plot
 Stacked Graphs
 Static State Replacement (Animation)
 Brushing and linking

47. Brushing and Linking - imMens
 Video
 3 million Brightkite user checkins
47
Liu, Zhicheng, Biye Jiang, and Jeffrey Heer. "imMens: Real‐time Visual
Querying of Big Data." Computer Graphics Forum. Vol. 32. No. 3pt4.
Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2013.

48. Brushing and Linking - BirdVis
 Application: Ecology
 Data: Bird observation records
 Task: Understanding the determinants of bird
species distributions and their dynamics
 Video
48
Ferreira, Nivan, et al. "Birdvis: Visualizing and understanding bird
populations."Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE Transactions
on 17.12 (2011): 2374-2383.

49. TEMPORAL, SPATIAL DATA
49

50. 50
Napoleon’s army in Russia
Napoleon’s army in Russia, author: Charles Minard (1781-1870)

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Life Circle of Japanese Beetles
Life circle of Japanese Beetles L. Newman, Man and Insects, 1965

52. 52
GeoTime
 A combined temporal-spatial space (X, Y, T
coordinate space)
 Represent place by 2D plane (or maybe 3D
topography)
 Use 3rd dimension to encode time
http://www.geotime.com/Home.aspx
Kapler, Thomas, and William Wright. "GeoTime information
visualization."Information Visualization 4.2 (2005): 136-146.

53. 53
GeoTime

54. 54
Timelines
 3-D Z axis timelines  3-D viewer facing
timelines

55. 55
Example

56. Using GeoTime to Visualize
Temporal Trajectory Data
 Video
GeoTime v4.0 - 2005 Hurricane Data (youtube)

57. WHEN THE DURATION
MATTERS
57

58. Lifeline
 video
58
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/temporalviz/

59. The TimeViz Browser
 http://survey.timeviz.net/
59

60. 60
References
 Aigner, W., Miksch, S., Schumann, H., &
Tominski, C. (2011). Visualization of time-
oriented data. Springer Science & Business
Media.
 E. Tufte. The Visual Display of Quantitative
Information, 1983