four pillars of visualization - by noah iliinsky

© 2013 IBM Corporation

Four Pillars of Visualization

Noah Iliinsky Center for Advanced Visualization, IBM @noahi


About the Speaker

§  Noah Iliinsky §  Center for Advanced Visualization, IBM §  Noah Iliinsky is the author of Designing

Data Visualizations and the technical editor of, and a contributor to, Beautiful Visualizations, both published by O’Reilly Media.

§  He has spent the last several years researching effective approaches to creating diagrams and data visualization.

§  He has a master’s in Technical Communication from the University of Washington, and a bachelor’s in Physics from Reed College


Why Visualization?

© 2013 IBM Corporation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anscombe%27s_quartet

Why visualization?

© 2013 IBM Corporation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anscombe%27s_quartet

Visualization makes data accessible.


We’re extremely good at detecting patterns and pattern violations: • trends • gaps • outliers

Your brain is a pattern-detecting machine.


When are visualizations successful?


1. Has clear purpose 2. Includes (only) the relevant

content 3. Uses appropriate structure 4. Has useful formatting

A Successful Visualization


1.  purpose – why this visualization 2.  content – what to visualize 3.  structure – how to visualize it 4.  formatting – everything else

A Successful Visualization


For creators, do you know: • Why am I creating this visualization? • Who is it for? • What do they need to understand? • What actions do you need to enable?

Purpose > Content > Structure > Formatting


How will it be consumed?

http://www.apple.com



Purpose dictates the deliverable. Different destinations require different maps.

http://maps.google.com



• What data matters? • What relationships matter? • Informed by purpose! • What’s excluded is as important as what’s included.




http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html


• How do we best reveal the most important data and relationships? (Position!)

• Choose meaningful layout and axes! • Use both axes! (Both, not three…) • Informed by purpose and content!


© 2013 IBM Corporation http://hipmunk.com

Structure: Position is everything.

© 2013 IBM Corporation http://hipmunk.com

•  absolute & relative departure time (continuous) •  absolute & relative arrival time (continuous) •  absolute & relative length of trip (continuous) •  stopovers (binary) •  absolute & relative stopover duration (continuous) •  absolute & relative stopover start & stop time (continuous) •  sort order (ranked)

Structure: Position is everything.

© 2013 IBM Corporation http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/post/33308788744/from-the-boston-metro-oct-10th-hannabeth-well

Structure fail.


© 2013 IBM Corporation http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/post/33308788744/from-the-boston-metro-oct-10th-hannabeth-well

Structure fixed.



• How should it look and feel? • How will it be consumed? • Makes data and relationships accessible.

• Makes importance visible. • Informed by purpose, content, and structure!



Formatting

Structure

Content

Purpose

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pound_layer_cake.jpg

What does success look like?

© 2013 IBM Corporation http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/01/02/us/chicago-killings.html

•  Structure is geographical map.

•  Colored shading encodes category.

•  Dot size represents quantity.

•  Outlines call attention to interesting areas.


© 2013 IBM Corporation http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/04/mapping-britain

Highlight what matters, remove the rest

• Geography is modified to show logical meaning • Colors encode party. • Saturation encodes turnout. • Outlines group regions. • All other details removed.


• Is the purpose well-defined? • Does the content support the purpose? • Does the structure reveal the content? • Does the formatting facilitate consumption?

• Iterate, iterate, iterate…

Checklist


Creating effective visualizations Choosing the right visual properties Learn how to properly choose the visual property (position, shape, size, color and others) to encode the different types of data that will be presented in a visualization.

Download your copy http://bit.ly/successfulvis


IBM Many Eyes: Learn and Create •  Learn visualization best practices, insights and futures

from IBM visualization luminaries

•  Create a visualization in three steps

•  ibm.com/manyeyes

•  ComplexDiagrams.com

Follow IBM visualization luminaries •  @manyeyes

•  @noahi

Watch our luminaries •  youtube.com/IBMVisualAnalytics

Engage IBM Visualization Luminaries