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An introduction to designing and building data visualizations

An introduction to designing and building data visualizations. Kristen Sosulski ksosulsk@stern.nyu.edu. About me. One of many influences…. Agenda. I. What is data visualization? II. What types of stories can you tell with a visualization? III. How to approach c reating visualizations?

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An introduction to designing and building data visualizations

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  1. An introduction to designing and building data visualizations Kristen Sosulski ksosulsk@stern.nyu.edu

  2. About me

  3. One of many influences…

  4. Agenda I. What is data visualization? II. What types of stories can you tell with a visualization? III. How to approach creating visualizations? III. Try it and apply it.

  5. I. Defining visualization

  6. Visualization is a kind of narrative, providing a clear answer to a question without extraneous details. -- Ben Fry, 2008, p. 4.

  7. Visualization is a graphical representation of some data or concepts - - Colin Ware, 2008, p. 20

  8. Visual design is mapping data to visual form. It should convey the unique properties of the data set it represents.

  9. Pathways of City Runners: A year of runs in NYC http://yesyesno.com/nike-city-runs

  10. Traffic in Lisbon http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project_details.cfm?id=728&index=728&domain=

  11. Visualizations • Help us think • Use perception to offload cognition • Serves as an external aid to augment working memory • Boost our cognitive abilities

  12. Visualizations are helpful in communication and analysis

  13. However, visualizations can hinder our message when designed poorly. Wong, 2010, p. 15

  14. Good Chart Design Place the larger segments of a pie chart on top at the 12 o’clock Use natural increments for the y-axis scale Include a zero baseline in all bar charts Wong, 2010, p. 143

  15. Data visualization enables us to record, analyze, and communicate

  16. Rationale • Traditional reports using tables, rows, and columns do not paint the whole picture or, even worse, lead an analyst to a wrong conclusion. • Firms need to use data visualization because information workers: • Cannot see a pattern without data visualization • Cannot fit all of the necessary data points onto a single screen • Cannot effectively show deep and broad data sets on a single screen. Source: Evelson, B. & Yuhanna, N. (2012). The Forrester Wave: Advanced data visualization (ADV) Platforms, Q3, 2012. Forrester Research, July 17.

  17. Patterns: Violence in Video Games News Stores: Using a filled density plot Source: http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html. Begin at 4:45

  18. Data Points: U.S. Unemployment Rate using a choropleth map Source: Forbes

  19. Data Points: Student Loan Debt using a bar, line, and area charts Source: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York: http://www.newyorkfed.org/studentloandebt/

  20. Data Points: Small Multiples of the Number of Unemployed Workers Source: http://hci.stanford.edu/jheer/files/zoo/

  21. Deep and Broad: Four Ways to Slice Obama’s 2013 Budget Proposal using a bubble pie chart Source: New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/02/13/us/politics/2013-budget-proposal-graphic.html

  22. II. What stories can you tell with data visualization?

  23. Hans Rosling on Poverty using a bubble chart with sliders http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html

  24. All medalists racing the 100 meter sprint Source: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/08/05/sports/olympics/the-100-meter-dash-one-race-every-medalist-ever.html

  25. Old vs. New Data Visualization • Dynamic data = = Dynamic Visualizations • Visual querying. Drill downs. Drop downs. • Animated visualization. • If a particular dimension, such as time, has hundreds or thousands of values (i.e. daily values over multiple years), manually clicking through every day is not practical. • An animated scroll up/down is more practical.

  26. You could tell a story like this… or

  27. Patterns: How people spend their time using a stacked area/line graph Source: New York Times

  28. The growth of Target from 1962 to 2008 using an animated graduated symbol map Source: Flowing data

  29. How long does it take to afford a beer? Using a horizontal bar chart.

  30. III. How to approach Creating visualizations

  31. A framework to get started… • What’s the best visual display?

  32. What do these charts have in common? They show a relationship between points.

  33. What do these charts have in common? They compare a set of values.

  34. What do these charts have in common? Track rises and falls over time

  35. What do these charts have in common? Seeing parts of the whole

  36. What do these charts have in common?

  37. Edward Tufte: On exploring forms of display http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th_1azZA2OY&noredirect=1

  38. After we select our display, we need to apply effective design principles. Let’s test our knowledge with a graph IQ test.

  39. Graph Design IQ Test This test will ask you 10 questions to determine how well you understand the principles of good table and graph design. Good luck!

  40. 1: Which graph makes it easier to determine whether Mid-Cap U.S. Stock or Small-Cap U.S. Stock has the greater share? Investment Portfolio Breakdown International Stock Large Cap US Stock Bonds Real Estate Mid-Cap US Stock Small Cap US Stock Commodities

  41. 1: Which graph makes it easier to determine whether Mid-Cap U.S. Stock or Small-Cap U.S. Stock has the greater share? Investment Portfolio Breakdown International Stock Large-Cap U.S. Stock Bonds Real Estate Mid-Cap U.S. Stock Small-Cap U.S. Stock Commodities 0% 4% 8% 12% 16% 20%

  42. 1: Which graph makes it easier to determine whether Mid-Cap U.S. Stock or Small-Cap U.S. Stock has the greater share? Pie Chart Bar Graph • Pie Chart • Bar Graph

  43. 2: Which of these line graphs is easier to read? Millions of USD 2-D Line Graph Company Sales 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

  44. 2: Which of these line graphs is easier to read? Millions of USD 3-D Line Graph Company Sales 60 50 40 30 20 10 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

  45. 2: Which of these line graphs is easier to read? 2-D Line Graph 3-D Line Graph • 2-D Line Graph • 3-D Line Graph

  46. 3: Which of these two tables is easier to read? Table A

  47. 3: Which of these two tables is easier to read? Table B Sales Summary by Region(USD) 1st Quarter, 2007 Regions are Sorted by Revenue

  48. 3: Which of these two tables is easier to read? Table A • Table A • Table B Table B

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