History and Principles of Data Visualization (CMSC 34900-1 Topics - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

History and Principles of Data Visualization (CMSC 34900-1 Topics in Scientific Computing; Autumn 2014) http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~glk/class/HistoVis/ Oct 2, 2014 Gordon Kindlmann

Admin stuff • Sign up for Piazza! • will use for questions & discussion • By tonight: • email re: password protected PDF dir • Second reading for Thu Oct 9 (Bertin) • Proxy service for getting PDFs from publishers when off campus: • http://answers.uchicago.edu/page.php?id=16101

Did the Readings? • “Why spend a day in the library when you can learn the same thing by working in the laboratory for a month?” • Chemist Frank Westheimer (1912-2007) • http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frank_Westheimer

discussion notes (developed in class) "graphical representation of data" what is data visualization? (we will revisit this throughout the quarter) outliers relationships trends wrt time highlight interesting features clusters manifolds on which data lives what's the purpose of a visualization? enabling comparisons discern noise from signal better "lookup" into table enable visual evaluation of functions nomogram: explore function and its args continuous mapping quantities to 2D space on page categorical ordering important (nec.y chosen) areal units (either boundary or value within is basis for inferrence) association between discrete entities paths/lines/curves to indicate suggestion of continuity in value btw 2 ordinates isometric/isocontour/isotherm of value over space What are ingredients in a visualization? e.g. ticks Fig 12 area of circle/square graphical abstraction/representation nec.y parameters of quantity or value discrete colors color for categories careful layout of intrisically spatial and non-spatial values e.g. tickmarks on cholera map politics census taxes (also political) money insurance what's the context/motivation military building, construction engineering for making a visualization? meteorology science (counter)clockwise rotation around high/lo pressure medicine/epidemiology Snow's Cholera map

[Friendly-BriefHistory-2008] • Milestones project: • http://www.datavis.ca/milestones/ • (url different than in paper) • Nomograms / Nomography http://myreckonings.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/JournalArticle/The_Lost_Art_of_Nomography.pdf •

• http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM197507312930513