making sense of (big) bata with visual analytics

Making Sense of (Big) Data

with Visual AnalyticsDr Kai Xu

Associate Professor in Data AnalyticsMiddlesex University, London, UK

k.xu@mdx.ac.uk https://kaixu.me http://vis4sense.github.io/

Outline• What is Visual Analytics• Example - TimeSet & VAST Challenge 2014• What is Sensemaking• Example - SenseMap

Data Visualisation – Human Cognition for Pattern Discovery

Visual Analytics = Visualisation + (Data) Analytics

Visualisation

Data Analysis Interaction

Information RetrievalMachine Learning

Data Mining

Information VisualisationScientific Visualisation

Computer Graphics

Human-Computer InteractionCognitive Psychology

Perception

My Previous Work – Visual Analytics

Example - VAST Challenge 2014• IEEE Visual Analytics Science & Technology (VAST) Challenge• Provide dataset and analysis tasks• Entry: visual analytics systems• Leading research groups and companies

• VAST Challenge 2014 – Mini Challenge 3• Data: tweets• Task: detect and solve a crime

The Data

Our Entry - SAVI: Social Analytics Visualisation

What is Sensemaking?• Making sense of data• Collecting, understanding, analysing, reasoning, and making decisions

• It is something we do everyday:• Plan a holiday, buy a house, understand an illness, …• Defence, policing, investment, medical diagnosis, …

• The task is usually not well defined • Can’t run a google search or SQL query to find the answer

• Involve many different data• Explorative and iterative

Sensemaking

Data Analysis & Visualisation

Reasoning Decision

Making Sense of (Big) Data

Example: what is the best camera for about £500?

What is the best camera for £500?

Pixel number

Sensor size

Image qualitychromatic aberration?!

Noise reduction

What does experts say?

Online reviews

What does my friend say? Smart phone

Compact

Full frame?

Micro 4/3?Sony RX100

Nikon D750Samsung Galaxy S7

What are the price?

How do I compare? Panasonic

LX100

Form factorModels

Camera LensAperture

This is usually what it looks like after one hour

• What is relevant and what is not?• Where are information about image quality?• How to compare the models?• Where did I left off two days ago?• How do I explain to my wife?

A ‘Map’ of Sensemaking• Sensemaking is kind of like exploring a maze …• What you need is something like this …

SenseMap – A ‘Map’ for Online Sensemaking

Browser enhancement

History Map

Knowledge Map

SenseMap• SenseMap to support browser-

based online sensemaking• Capture and visualise the

analytic provenance• Support information collection

and curation• Early stage of the sensemaking

process

Takeaway Messages• Sensemaking is how people understand, reason, and make decisions

with data• It is important to Big Data, but there is limited support available• Visual Analytics combines data visualisation with analytics• A promising approach for sensemaking support

Questions?I am looking for collaboration

Dr Kai Xu (Associate Professor in Data Analytics)Middlesex University, London, UK

k.xu@mdx.ac.uk https://kaixu.me http://vis4sense.github.io/