Lesson 8

Visualising and Analysing

Time-Oriented Data

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Content

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented 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

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Characteristic of time-series data

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Characteristic of time-series data

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Characteristic of time-series data

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Classic Ways of Graphing Time

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented 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

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented 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

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Bump Chart shows rank of the most populous cities at each census: 1790-1890

Classic Ways of Graphing Time

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented 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

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented 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

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Trend
• Variability
• Rate of change
• Co-variation
• Cycles
• Exceptions

Time-series Patterns: Trend

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Time-series Patterns: Trend

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Time-series Patterns: Variability

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Time-series Patterns: Rate of change

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Time-series Patterns: Cycles

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Time-series Patters: Co-variation

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Time-series Patterns: Exceptions

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Working with reference line

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Working with reference region

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Analytical time-series chart: Control chart

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Application of control chart

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Analytical time-series chart: Candlestick chart

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Interpreting candlestick chart

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Interpreting candlestick chart

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Interpreting candlestick chart

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Challenge I: Visualising Change between Two Points in Time

• Classic bar chart method

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Challenge I: Visualising Change between Two Points in Time

• Slope graph method

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Classic line graph method

Challenge II: Visualising cyclical patterns

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Cycle plot method

Challenge II: Visualising cyclical patterns

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• sunburst graph method

Challenge II: Visualising cyclical patterns

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

Challenge III: Visualising massive time-series data

• Classic line graph method

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Horizon graph method

Challenge III: Visualising massive time-series data

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• The basic construct of a horizon graph

Challenge III: Visualising massive time-series data

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• The data

Challenge IV: Visualising distribution over time

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Boxplot method

Challenge IV: Visualising distribution over time

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented 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

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Classic pie chart method

Challenge V: Part-Whole relationship

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Stacked bar chart method

Challenge V: Part-Whole relationship

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 7: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Stacked area graph method

Challenge V: Part-Whole relationship

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 7: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Multiple line graph method

Challenge V: Part-Whole relationship

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 7: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Stream graph

Challenge V: Part-Whole relationship

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 7: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Calendar View

Alternative Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 7: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Heatmap-based method

Alternative Time-series Data Visualisation Techniques

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Highlighting

Interaction Support

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Filtering

Interaction Support

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Slider

Interaction Support

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Pointing

Interaction Support

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Animated ternary chart

Visualising changes over time

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Animated bubble plot (motion chart)

Visualising changes over time

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Animat star plot

Visualising changes over time

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Real-time horizon graph

Visualising changes over time

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

• Aggregate to various time interval.

• Viewing time periods in context.

• Grouping related time intervals.

• Using related time intervals.

• Using running averages to enhance perception of high-level patterns.

• Omitting missing values from a display.

• Optimising a graph’s aspect ratio.

• Using logarithm scales to compare rates of change.

Time-Oriented Data Visualisation Best Practices

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented 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

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

R package for creating interactive time-series data visualisation

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

R Shiny Applications

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson 8: Visualising and Analysing Time-Oriented Data

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