1. ALA Anaheim 2012 LLAMA – MAES
LET THE DATA TALK
Cory Lown
Digital Technologies Development Librarian
North Carolina State University Libraries

2. 16,500 BCE First maps were of the sky
Cave paintings at Lascaux contain star maps
Image from flickr user williamcromar

3. 6,200 BCE Maps of land came later.
There seem to be several contenders for the first town map
But here is a frequently cited example from Konya, Turkey in 6200 BCE

4. 950
This graph by an unknown author attempts to show the movement of the planets over time.
I can't vouch for its accuracy.

5. 1637 Rene Descartes – invents the Cartesian coordinate system
This has significant impact on how we visualize quantitative information

6. 1786 William Playfair is credited with inventing statistical graphics.
He invented the Bar Chart
This is a later example that shows the rise in the price of wheat along with the rise in wages over time

7. 1991
Ben Schneiderman invented the treemap as a way to visualize usage of his Macintosh's hard drive.
It's useful for displaying hierarchical data

8. 2005
Hans Rosling invents the Motion Bubble Chart – which is now part of Google's visualization API
An interactive chart that displays several variables at once and animates changes over time.
It's featured in a popular TED talk

9. Flickr user ketmonkey

10. Image from Casey Fleser
An Osborne Executive portable computer, from 1982 with a Zilog Z80 4MHz CPU, and a 2007 Apple iPhone with a 412MHz ARM11 CPU. The Executive weighs 100 times as much, is nearly 500 times as large by volume, costs approximately 10 times as much (adjusting for inflation), and has 1/100th the clock frequency of the phone.

11. Flickr user ketmonkey

12. Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
— Pablo Picasso

13. Untitled Image Layout Image of something built
1913 London Underground Map -
Here is an example of a data visualization (or map) that is accurate but may not work well for its intended purpose.
Things to notice
It's a standard map project
Subway lines appear where they would geographically if they were on the surface
Roads, various municipal boundaries are visible.
It works but it's not optimal

14. Untitled Image Layout Image of a tool
Harry Beck's 1933 Underground Map
Beck took a step back
Considered the problem that the subway map was attempting to solve
What matters are relation of stops and transfer stations to each other
Legibility of stop names – where to get on and off
Subway is underground – don't need roads
For simplicity and legibility lines are drawn at 90 and 45 degree angles
– Similar to electrical circuit diagrams

15. 2010 Boston T Map
This basic design is so successful that it is still used for subway maps around the world

16. Psychophysics The branch of psychology that studies the relationship between physical stimuli and mental response

17. Stimulus  Stimulation  Perception

20. Preattentive attributes
Form
Orientation
Line length
Line width
Size
Shape
Curvature
Marks
Enclosure
Color
Hue
Intensity
Spatial Position 2D

21. Preattentive attributes
Form
Orientation
Line length
Line width
Size
Shape
Curvature
Marks
Enclosure
Color
Hue
Intensity
Spatial Position 2D

22. Preattentive attributes
Form
Orientation
Line length
Line width
Size
Shape
Curvature
Marks
Enclosure
Color
Hue
Intensity
Spatial Position 2D

23. Scatterplot – takes advantage of 2D spatial position

24. Line chart also takes advantage of 2D spatial position
Line chart also takes advantage of 2D spatial position. Line chart is really a scatterplot with lines draw between points in some sequence.

25. Bar chart takes advantage of line length and 2D spatial position

26. THINGS TO THINK ABOUT Advice from Tufte & Few
Beyond asking good questions. Knowing the attributes that make for effective display of quantitative data, what are some guidelines etc. for visualizing data. There’s no magic bullet for creating effective data visualizations. It takes practice and experimentation. But there are some guiding principles that we help get you moving in the right direction.
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

27. “Above all else show the data”
– Edward Tufte

28. Tables & Graphs

29. Use Tables When you will need to look up individual values

30. Use Tables When you will need to compare individual values

31. Use Tables When precise values are required

32. Use Graphs When the message is contained in the shape of values

33. Use Graphs When there is a large amount of data

34. Types of Graphs Different quantitative relationships require different forms of graphs. There are heuristics you can follow.

35. Lines Perfect for expressing change over time.

37. Points When you want to show whether two things are correlated use points.

39. Bars These are great for showing the rank of things.

41. Bars Also good for expressing part to whole relationships -- percentages.

42. 2D area Use sparingly. This includes pie charts.

45. Highlight the data

46. Highlight the data by reducing non-data ink. Be stingy with ink.

47. Highlight the data by reducing non-data ink
Highlight the data by reducing non-data ink. If I removed this would the graph lose meaning?

48. Highlight the data by reducing non-data ink
Highlight the data by reducing non-data ink. De-emphasize supporting components such as grid lines

49. Highlight the data by enhancing data ink
Highlight the data by enhancing data ink. Emphasize the most important data by using width, orientation, size, enclosure, hue, color intensity.

50. But don't overemphasize.
Highlight the data by enhancing data ink.
But don't overemphasize.

51. Organize Group, prioritize, and sequence data to help viewers understand.

52. Too much data? Try small multiples.

54. Excel, Google Docs, Google Visualization API,
TOOLS

63. Untitled Image Layout Somewhat like google gadgets but more powerful.
Google Visualization API
Collection of JavaScript visualizations
You can customize and embed in web pages
Requires some programming know-how

64. Relatively simple Javascript embedded in a web page generates the chart.
Can modify this directly and create a chart, but the data will be static.

65.
Relatively simple Javascript embedded in a web page generates the chart.
Can modify this directly and create a chart, but the data will be static.

66. READERS’ ADVISORY

67. Edward Tufte The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

68. Stephen Few Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten

69. Christopher Healey Perception in Visualization http://www. csc. ncsu

70. Cory Lown
NCSU Libraries
THANK YOU