Lesson 4
Visualising and Analysing
Time-series Data

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
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Last updated: 10/09/2019, 11:00pm
Content

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Characteristics of time-series data
- Classic ways of graphing time
- Time-series data patterns
- Time-series data visualisation techniques
- Interactive techniques for time-series data visualisation
Characteristic of time-series data

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data

Characteristic of time-series data

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data

Characteristic of time-series data

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data

Characteristic of time-series data

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data

Classic Ways of Graphing Time

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data

Image from Playfair’s Commercial and Political Atlas (1786) representing imports and exports of England from 1700 to 1782 via a line plot. The yellow line on the bottom shows imports into England and the red line at the top exports from England. Color shading is added between the lines to indicate positive (light blue) and negative (red; around 1781) overall balances.
Source: Playfair and Corry (1786).
Classic Ways of Graphing Time

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
Information rich chart of William Playfair that depicts the weekly wages of a good mechanic (line plot at the bottom), the price of a quarter of wheat (bar graph in the center), as well as historical context (timeline at the top) over a time period of more than 250 years.
Source: Playfair (1821).

Classic Ways of Graphing Time

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
Bump Chart shows rank of the most populous cities at each census: 1790-1890
Classic Ways of Graphing Time

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
Record of the Weather in New York City for December, 1912. The bold line indicates temperature in degrees Fahrenheit. The light solid line shows wind velocity in miles per hour. The dotted line depicts relative humidity in percentage from readings taken at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Arrows portray the prevailing direction of the wind. Initials at the base of the chart show the weather conditions as follows: S, clear; PC, partly cloudy; C, cloudy; R, rain; Sn, snow.

Classic Ways of Graphing Time

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data

Phillips curve. Unemployment rate (horizontal axis) is plotted against inflation rate (vertical axis). Each point in the plot corresponds to one year and is labeled accordingly. The markers of subsequent years are linked to create a visual trace of time.
Source: Adapted from Tufte
(1997, p. 60).
Time-series Patterns

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Trend
- Variability
- Rate of change
- Co-variation
- Cycles
- Exceptions
Time-series Patterns: Trend

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data

Time-series Patterns: Trend

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data

Time-series Patterns: Variability

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data


Time-series Patterns: Rate of change

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data

Time-series Patterns: Cycles

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data

Time-series Patters: Co-variation

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data

Time-series Patterns: Exceptions

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data


- Working with reference line
Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Working with reference region


Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Analytical time-series chart: Control chart

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Application of control chart

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Analytical time-series chart: Candlestick chart

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Interpreting candlestick chart

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Interpreting candlestick chart

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Interpreting candlestick chart

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
Challenge I: Visualising Change between Two Points in Time
- Classic bar chart method

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
Challenge I: Visualising Change between Two Points in Time
- Slope graph method
Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Classic line graph method

Challenge II: Visualising cyclical patterns
Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Cycle plot method
Challenge II: Visualising cyclical patterns

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- sunburst graph method

Challenge II: Visualising cyclical patterns
Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
Challenge III: Visualising massive time-series data

- Classic line graph method
Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Horizon graph method

Challenge III: Visualising massive time-series data
Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- The basic construct of a horizon graph
Challenge III: Visualising massive time-series data
Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- The data

Challenge IV: Visualising distribution over time
Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Boxplot method

Challenge IV: Visualising distribution over time
Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- To show values that combine to form a whole compare to one another and the whole change through time
Challenge V: Part-Whole relationship

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Classic pie chart method
Challenge V: Part-Whole relationship

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Stacked bar chart method
Challenge V: Part-Whole relationship

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Stacked area graph method
Challenge V: Part-Whole relationship

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Multiple line graph method
Challenge V: Part-Whole relationship

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Stream graph
Challenge V: Part-Whole relationship
Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Calendar View
Alternative Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques
Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Heatmap-based method
Alternative Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
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Highlighting
Interaction Support

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
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Filtering
Interaction Support

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
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Slider
Interaction Support

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
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Pointing
Interaction Support

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
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Animated ternary chart


Visualising changes over time

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
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Animated bubble plot (motion chart)
Visualising changes over time

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
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Animat star plot
Visualising changes over time

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
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Real-time horizon graph
Visualising changes over time

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
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Aggregate to various time interval.
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Viewing time periods in context.
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Grouping related time intervals.
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Using related time intervals.
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Using running averages to enhance perception of high-level patterns.
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Omitting missing values from a display.
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Optimising a graph’s aspect ratio.
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Using logarithm scales to compare rates of change.
Time-Oriented Data Visualisation Best Practices

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
- Overlapping time scales to compare cyclical patterns.
- Using cyclical plots to examine trends and cycles together.
- Combining individual and cumulative values to compare actuals to a target.
- Shifting time to compare leading and lagging indicators.
- Stacking line graphs to compare multiple variables.
- Expressing time as 0-100% to compare asynchronous processes.
Time-Oriented Data Visualisation Best Practices

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-series Data
R package for creating interactive time-series data visualisation

IS428 Visual Analytics for Business Intelligence
Lesson 4: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data
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