Introduction to Data Visualization

Alark Joshi
 Introduction
• Ph.D. in Computer Science with an emphasis on
Data Visualization - University of Maryland
• Postdoctoral Fellow - Yale University

• Conduct research on developing effective

visualizations
– Neurosurgical applications
– Atmospheric Physics
– Data Visualization on Tablets
 Why are we here?

Large Hadron Collider - European Organization for Nuclear Research

Image Credits: NYTimes, Infosthetics, FlowingData
 Why are we here?
• Baby Name Wizard
– http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager
• Origin of Species – Edits
– http://benfry.com/traces/
• Netflix Queues
– http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/01/10/nyregion/2
0100110-netflix-map.html?ref=nyregion
• Unemployment Visualization (NYTimes)
– http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/06/business/e
conomy/unemployment-lines.html
 Goals
• Understand what makes a visualization effective
• Critically evaluate a visual representation of
data by looking at various examples in media
(newspapers, television and so on)
• Gain hands-on experience with visualization
tools (Tableau, Many Eyes)
• Incorporate visualization principles to build an
interactive visualization of your own data
 Data Scientist
• Professionals responsible for filtering out the
noise and analyzing essential information
• Integral part of competitive intelligence, a newly
emerging field that encompasses data analysis to
help businesses gain a competitive edge
• A shortfall of about 140,000 to 190,000
individuals with analytical expertise is projected
by 2018
• Glassdoor.com shows average data scientist
salaries ranging from $60,000 to $115,000
Slide credits: Data Scientist: The Hottest Job You Haven't Heard Of – AOL Jobs
 What is Data Visualization?
• Visual Representation of Data
• For exploration, discovery, insight, ..
• Interactive component provides more insight as
compared to a static image

Image credits: Yahoo Finance, IBM

 In-class Reading
• Seven things you need to know about Data
Visualization (5 mins)

• What did you find out about data visualization

that you did not know?
 Types of Data Visualization
• Scientific Visualization –
– Structural Data – Seismic, Medical, ..
• Information Visualization
– No inherent structure – News, stock market, top
grossing movies, facebook connections
• Visual Analytics
– Use visualization to understand and synthesize
large amounts of multimodal data – audio, video,
text, images, networks of people ..
Scientific Visualization
Information Visualization
 Visual Analytics
• Integration of interactive visualization with
analysis techniques to answer a growing range
of questions in science, business, and analysis.
• Making sense of multimodal data -audio clips,
video, photographs, transcripts, …
Al Gore – An Inconvenient Truth
Visualization of Napoleon’s Army
 Impact of Visualization
• Huge impact on policy, planning and disaster
avoidance.
• Florence Nightingale’s visualization of casualties
during the Crimean War
 Impact of Visualization
• Hurricane Visualization for the common man

Demo:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26295161?preferredName=Gustav

Image Credits: Stamen Design

 Impact of Visualization
• John Snow’s Cholera Map
• Snow used a spot map to illustrate how cases of
cholera clustered around the pump
 Ushahidi
• “testimony” in Swahili
• Developed to map user reported violence in
Kenya after the post-election fallout at the
beginning of 2008
• Adapted and used by
– votereport.in and
– swineflu.ushahidi.com.
 Good data representation
principles
• Breakout into groups of two and identify five
good data visualization principles
– 5 minutes
 List of principles
• Integrate and distill the principles
• “Everything should be made as simple as
possible, but not simpler.” ~Albert Einstein
 Contact Information
• Email: [email protected]
• Webpage: http://cs.usfca.edu/~apjoshi/cs686/
• Office location: HR 510-i
• Weekly office hours:
– Monday – 1:30-3pm
– Wednesday – 11am-12pm
– Friday Skype office hours – 10am-11am
• Skype id - alark.usf
 Resources
• Required books
– Getting Started with Processing by Casey Reas
and Ben Fry. (Required)
– Interactive Data Visualization for the Web by
Scott Murray. (Required)
• Research Papers
• Websites/Blogs
• Relevant book chapters that will be provided
well in advance
 Course Details
• Assignments - 40%
• Reading Response (blog posts) - 15%
• Tool/Library presentation -5%
• In-class participation – 10%
• Final Project - 30%
– Client interview + Project Proposal – 5%
– Annotated bibliography – 5%
– Alpha release – 5%
– Beta release – 5%
– Final Project Presentation, Report (8-pages), Source
Code and Client Testimonial – 10%
 Assignments
• A1 - Introduction to Data Visualization through
Tableau
• A2 - Data exploration through Visualization in R
• A3 - Multivariate Visualization in Processing
• A4 - Web-based Visualization in D3
 Graphic Design IQ Test
• http://www.perceptualedge.com/files/GraphDesi
gnIQ.html
 Activities for next class
• Create a blog (wordpress.com or any hosting
service of your choice that allows comments) and
email me the link
 Next class
• Design Principles
• Graphical Integrity
 For next week
• Look through some of the popular media
(websites/newspapers etc.) and post an image of
a good and a bad visualization on your blog
before next class
• Watch Hans Rosling’s TED talk and read
assigned paper and post your reaction on your
blog by next week