Visualization

Leslie WuLoren Yu

Is this a good visualization?

http://tinyurl.com/6rr22g

What is visualization?

Definition: The use of computer-supported, interactive, visual representations of data to amplify cognition

• Situations / Tasks / Users (STUs)

Creating good visualizations

Sequential Process Iterative Process

“[A]head of time, one must know what the “major” variables are and perhaps ask oneself several questions that a viewer would want to know…” - Neema Moraveji

“Ideally, thinking-through-visualizing should lead to discoveries that feed-back towards earlier steps as much as they feed-forward”, and not be a “‘waterfall’ sequence that only has iteration within each step” - Mike Krieger

“I wonder if people [build upwards from ‘building blocks’] to create the next best visualization, [or if theory comes after the visualization] to justify why the visualization is a good one?” - Marcia Lee

What tasks do visualizations support?

Visualization Tasks

Cost Structure

• Different visual representations have different cost structures.

• Some visual characteristics are “automatically” recognized, while others require conscious effort to interpret

Cost Structure?

How does visualization amplify cognition?

1. Increasing available memory and processing resources

2. Reducing search costs3. Visual detection of patterns4. Perceptual inference operations5. Perceptual attention for monitoring6. Encoding information

Consequences of Visualization

Easier is not necessarily better

“[R]etention occurs alongside some amount of expended effort… [I]f I have to spend less effort thinking about something, I'm less likely to remember it” - Neema Moraveji

“I wonder if the ease of representing information in a particular form colors how we approach it… If we continually see tables used to organize information, do we become less receptive to the data it models?" - Amal Aziz

“[W]hen do you use visuals and when do you just show a table?" - Neil Patel

Visualizations for whom?

A. In which domains would visualization be most useful?• "I would also be interested to read some discussion of

professions or domains that could really benefit from increased work in the area of information visualization. Who uses a vast amount of complex data that presents a visualization challenge?" - Sara Mitchell

B. How does visualization fit into societal organizations?• "Where does visualization fit into to large systems of human

minds working together?" - Nick Wolfe

Visualization in the Future

A. Different Domains: Scientific Visualization vs. Information Visualization

B. Visualization for the MassesC. Mobilization/Miniaturization of visualization

“[I]t would be nice to explore the different possibilities of [mobile] devices. How much context can be used…? - Nick Briggs

D. Automatically generating visualizations based on user models"it would be neat to see a system that models user behavior… [to generate visualizations] that would respond well to human senses and perception..." – Michael Smith

Collaborative InfoViz and Social Cognition

• Many Eyes comments: http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/browse/comments

• Hans Rosling: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92