Enhancing Insight Through Visualization

1. Information Visualization David Akers · 07 November 2006

2. Definition [www.oed.com] 1. The action or fact of visualizing; the power or process of forming a mental picture or vision of something not actually present to the sight; a picture thus formed. 1883 Academy 14 July 31 Investigations into the phenomena of visualisation. 1884 GURNEY & MYERS in 19th Cent. July 72 In the next stage of visualisation the percipient sees a face or figure projected or dejected, as it were, on some convenient surface. 1894 Athenæum 10 Nov. 638/2 [The book had] a power of visualization that gave it a claim to real originality.

3. Definition [www.oed.com] 2. The action or process of rendering visible. 1936 Amer. Jrnl. Cancer XXVII. 49 The hexagonal tube offers distinct advantages with its flat sides permitting good visualization. 1960 New Scientist 28 July 305/3 Echo sounding is now being applied to the visualization of structures within the body. 1973 Nature 17 Aug. 410/1 Direct visualization of biological material at this level would tell us much about the structure and mode of action of macromolecules. 1982 Listener 23/30 Dec. 42/3 The cinematic visualisation of the script belongs entirely to Welles and his technicians.

5. Challenger Disaster 1 of 13 pages of material faxed to NASA by Morton Thiokol

6. Challenger Disaster 1 of 13 pages of material faxed to NASA by Morton Thiokol

7. Challenger Disaster E. Tufte, pp. 46-47 , Visual Explanations

8. Challenger Disaster Redrawn by E. Tufte, p. 49 , Visual Explanations

9. Functions of visualizations Communicate information to others Make a point Tell a story Make decisions Support analysis and reasoning Answer a question “One image = One diagnosis” To explore and discover; encourage creativity Look at things in a new way “The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers” [R. Hamming] Inspire

10. The Purpose of Data Visualization is to Help People Think and Communicate

11. Evaluation Execution Gulfs of Execution & Evaluation Gulfs Conceptual model (Goals) Real world(Interactions) Norman 1986

12. Evaluation Gulf of Evaluation Gulf Real world: Conceptual model:x,y correlated?

13. Evaluation Gulf of Evaluation Gulf Real world: Conceptual model:x,y correlated?

14. Evaluation Gulf of Evaluation Gulf Real world: r = -.29 Conceptual model:x,y correlated?

15. Execution Gulf of Execution Gulf Conceptual model: Draw a rectangle Real world Move 90 30 Rotate 35 Pen down …

16. Execution Gulf of Execution Gulf Real world Conceptual model: Draw a rectangle

17. Evaluation Execution Visualization: A Double Gulf? Visualization user Visualization designer Representation Conceptual model Data Visualization Manipulation

18. Evaluation Bad visualization? Visualization user Visualization designer Representation x,y correlated? Data

19. Evaluation Better Visualization? Visualization user Visualization designer Representation r = -.29 x,y correlated? Data

21. Route Maps Overlaid Route Sketched Route • Find cognitive and perceptual principles • Optimize the visualization according to these principles Agrawala and Stolte, Rendering Effective Route Maps, SIGGRAPH 2001

22. 2004 presidential election Matthew Ericson, NY Times

23. 2004 presidential election Matthew Ericson, NY Times

24. 2004 presidential election http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/

25. From Cartography, Dent

26. From Cartography, Dent

28. Phan et al. 2005

29. Minard (1861)

30. Dynamic Queries TimeSearcher: Hochheiser and Shneiderman 2001

31. DTI-Query [Akers et al. 2004, Sherbondy, et al. 2005]