Lesson 1

Introduction to Visual Analytics

Mentor: Dr. Kam Tin Seong

Associate Professor of Information Systems (Practice)

tskam@smu.edu.sg

Version 1.8.0

Last updated: 30/8/2018

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

What will you learn from this lesson?

  • Motivation of Visual Analytics

  • What Visual Analytics is

  • The value of Visual Analytics

  • Visual Analytics Toolkits

  • Visualising and Analysing Univariate Data

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Motivation of Visual Analytics

  • The First Crime of Data Visualisation

Source: MINISTRY OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY

STRAITS TIMES GRAPHICS

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Motivation of Visual Analytics

  • Data rich, information poor

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Motivation of Visual Analytics

  • The impact of volunteered data

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Motivation of Visual Analytics

  • The impact of data.gov initiative

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Motivation of Visual Analytics

  • The impact of smart nation vision

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Motivation of Visual Analytics

  • Everyday data analysts

    • Non-professional statistician

    • Uses spreadsheet as main analytical tool

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Motivation of Visual Analytics

  • Excel table : great hammer, lousy screwdriver

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Motivation of Visual Analytics

  • Charts should work with you, not against you

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Motivation of Visual Analytics

Data analysis

without

data visualisation

is no

data analysis

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Motivation of Visual Analytics

  • When statistics failed!

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Motivation of Visual Analytics

  • Analytical graphics reveal the truth

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

What is Visual Analytics?

  • The science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces

  • A halfway house: a stopping place on the path from data to decision

Detecting the expected,

discovering the unexpected

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

What is Visual Analytics?

  • Visual Analytics’ greatest strength is its use for sense-making

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth

- Sherlock Holmes

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

What is Visual Analytics?

  • Visual Analytics Framework

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

What is Visual Analytics?

  • Conceptual view of Visual Analytics

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

What is Visual Analytics?

  • Visual presentation using Excel chart

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

What is Visual Analytics?

  • Visual exploration using JMP chart

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

What is Visual Analytics?

  • Visual Analytics as a knowledge discovery process

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

What is Visual Analytics?

  • The science of Visual Analytics

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

The value of Visual Analytics

  • Florence Nightingale (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910)

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

The value of Visual Analytics

  • The source of cholera outbreak in Soho, England. (John Snow, 1854).

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Visual Analytics toolkits

  • Commercial-off-the-shelf
    • Stand alone
    • Data visualisation developer toolkits
  • Open-source
    • Stand alone
    • Data visualisation API library

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Visual Analytics toolkits

  • Commercial-off-the-shelf

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Visual Analytics toolkits

  • Introducing Tableau

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Visual Analytics toolkits

  • Tableau platforms

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Visualisng and Analysing Univariate Data

  • Distribution analysis

    • Part-to-whole

    • Statistical distribution

  • Deviation analysis

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Visualisng and Analysing Univariate Data

  • Characteristics of univariate data

    • Categorical

    • Continuous

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Distribution analysis of categorical data

  • Save the Pies for Dessert

    • Pie charts force us to compare either 2-D areas formed by each slice or the angles formed by each where the slices meet in the centre

    • Segment too small to be labelled

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Distribution analysis of categorical data

  • Bar chart came to the rescue

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Distribution analysis of categorical data

  • Pareto chart

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Distribution analysis of continuous data

  • Beyond single descriptive statistic

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Distribution analysis of continuous data

  • Introducing Boxplot

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Distribution analysis of continuous data

  • Interpretation of a Boxplot

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Distribution analysis of continuous data

  •  Comparing multiple boxplot

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Deviation Analysis

  • Examining how one or more sets of values deviate from a reference set of values

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Deviation Analysis

  • A Tale of Deviation Charts

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Deviation Analysis

  • Working with reference line

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

Deviation Analysis

  • Working with reference region

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Lesson1: Introduction to Visual Analytics

ISSS608-Lesson01

By Kam Tin Seong

ISSS608-Lesson01

This lesson introduces Visual Analytics. It consists of four section. First, the motivation of visual analytics will be explained. This is followed by a discussion on the key features of visual analytics. In this third section, the historical development of visual analytics will be discussed. Lastly, we will examine graphical techniques for visualising and analysing univariate data.

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