Data Visualization

What?
 

Why?

How?

{context}

{what is data visualization?}

{what is ethics?}

{what do you want to do with your life?}

Let's try something different...

mfviz.com/info200

{are we on the same page?}

What's the data?

What's the visual encoding?

What's the data?

What's the visual encoding?

What's the data?

What's the visual encoding?

What's the data?

What's the visual encoding?

What's the data?

What's the visual encoding?

What's the data?

What's the visual encoding?

What's the data?

What's the visual encoding?

What's the data?

What's the visual encoding?

So... what is data visualization?

The visual encoding of data to enhance perception.

{lots of definitions}

{why?}

Illumination

Does the wind blow East to West, or West to East?

Exploration

How long do people live?

Impact

How segregated are U.S. cities?

{how?}

Visualization is a design problem

Identify user/audience

Articulate problem scope

Develop personas

Write scenarios

Encode data to solve problems

Maximize how quickly and accurately people decode information from graphics

Maximize how quickly and accurately people decode information from graphics

(Preattentive cognition)

How many 3's are there?

How many 3's are there?

Orientation

Maximize how quickly and accurately people decode information from graphics

Maximize how quickly and accurately people decode information from graphics

(graphical perception)

Most accurate

Least accurate

This only matters if you 

know what is most 

important to your user

An example

Percentage of people who smoke in each U.S. county

Estimates from 1996 - 2012, separately for men and women

Who is your user, and in what scenario would they use this information?

Which questions should be answered for your user?

What to walk away with

Turning data into information

Thanks!

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