Information Visualization - Books, Links and More

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Seeing the Data is 90% of the Battle

Data Visualization refers to using images and graphics to represent amounts and categories. The basic representations include pie charts, bar charts, and line graphs. That is just the start, and it can get much more exciting.

It takes a lot of work to collect and integrate data, but with that in place you need to create great ways for people to consume it. If you do not invest time into thinking about how people will come to understand the data your efforts will have been in vain. Visualizing the data is key to understanding the data and gaining insights into it. In this Lens I link to books and websites that will be helpful in presenting the information you have compiled.

How Billions in Spending Compare - An Infographic

a very thought provoking data visualization

There are times when you come across something that really makes you think. This particular Infographic from www.informationisbeautiful.net does just that. It gives a unique perspective on how we and our governments spend money. I came away with the question... are these really our priorities...

People say that information is power... but data visualization helps us to unlock that information and make it useful.

Newsmap - A Data Visualization of Google News

Do you want to see an overview of all the important news of the day? Would you like to understand which stories are getting the most attention? It would probably be useful to see which were the newest? And maybe categorize them too....

That sounds like a lot, but that is exactly what the Newsmap Data Visualization does. It is an example of a Treemap Data Visualizatoin. The basic idea is that items with larger frequencies take up a bigger area on the chart. It is really useful to focus your attention on what is most important and understand how other big (or important) other items are relative to that.

I encourage you to check it out and bookmark it. I use it every day to read my news.

See the data...

here is some inspiration for what can be done to visualize data

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Build Your Own Data Visualization

As you may notice not all of the books I recommend are specifically about data visualization... some lean a little more toward visual programming. The reason for that is you should never be limited by what Excel or your reporting tool offers. There may be times when you have a great idea and need to build your own tool to visualize data.

Several of the Processing and ActionScript books will give you ideas for building your own data visualization. If I had to pick one to start with I would go with Visualizing Data: Exploring and Explaining Data with the Processing Environment by Ben Fry.

Good Magazine Transparency Archives

A great collection Info Graphics

Data Visualization can be created in an automated fashion such as chart and graphs in excel, but there are also Information Graphics which artist work to product custom representations of data. These are often produced for magazines and newspapers to really help the reader understand the information in an intuitive and fun way. I came across a collection of these from Good Magazine on Flickr. They are inspirational to say the least.
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Data Visualization of Facebook in 3D

Data visualization is useful in understanding how a social network interacts... this could be offline like a terrorist cell or online, like Facebook.

This is an example of how Processing can help you build your own data visualizations.
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My All Time Favorite Data Visualization

The data visualization above (taken from Edward Tufte's The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, but originally much older) is a map of Napoleon's march to invade Russia. The impressive thing is that is shows the army's direction, the size of the army, the location of the army and at the bottom it displays the temperature.

Part of what makes this great is that with a little background a layman can look at this gain many insights.

Visualization and Business Intelligence Related Lenses

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Updates from the Visualize Complexity Gallery of Data Visualizations

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Websites that get it and use it...

When I think of websites that are into data visualization the first two that come to mind are Etsy.com and Digg.com. This are not sites that the topic or focus is information visualization, but rather sites that create interactive tools for their users that have a visual element to them. There are others that are centered around a single visualization (e.g. Newmap).

Etsy.com uses a number of visualizations to help shoppers and sellers review products.

Digg.com has sponsored contests and encouraged the creation of visualizations that help users keep up with what is new on the web.

Top 10 Information Visualization Books

Seeing Data

Visual Data Mining: Techniques and Tools for Data Visualization and Mining by Tom Soukup, Ian Davidson

Visual Data Mining: Techniques and Tools for Data Visualization and Mining by Tom Soukup, Ian Davidson

Marketing analysts use data mining techniques to g more...0 points

Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte

Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte

A remarkable range of examples for the idea of vis more...0 points

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition by Edward R. Tufte

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition by Edward R. Tufte

A modern classic. Tufte teaches the fundamentals o more...0 points

Visualizing Data: Exploring and Explaining Data with the Processing Environment by Ben Fry

Visualizing Data: Exploring and Explaining Data with the Processing Environment by Ben Fry

Enormous quantities of data go unused or underused more...0 points

Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten by Stephen Few

Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten by Stephen Few

Tables and graphs can more adequately communicate more...0 points

Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists by Casey Reas, Ben Fry

Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists by Casey Reas, Ben Fry

It has been more than twenty years since desktop p more...0 points

Flash Math Creativity by Manny Tan, Jamie Macdonald, Glen Rhodes, Brandon Williams, Kip Parker, Gabriel Mulzer, Jared Tarbell, Ty Lettau, JD Hooge, Keith Peters, David Hirmes, Lifaros, Paul Prudence, Pavel Kaluzhny, Ken Jokol

Flash Math Creativity by Manny Tan, Jamie Macdonald, Glen Rhodes, Brandon Williams, Kip Parker, Gabriel Mulzer, Jared Tarbell, Ty Lettau, JD Hooge, Keith Peters, David Hirmes, Lifaros, Paul Prudence, Pavel Kaluzhny, Ken Jokol

Also featuring: Keith Peters, David Hirmes, Lifaros, more...0 points

Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art (Foundation) by Ira Greenberg

Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art (Foundation) by Ira Greenberg

Create code art, visualizations, and interactive applications more...0 points

Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative by Edward R. Tufte

Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative by Edward R. Tufte

Describes design strategies - the proper arrangeme more...0 points

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Let me know what you think?

Is there other information that I could add? Please let me know any comments you have...

  • SergioBatista Jan 11, 2012 @ 7:59 am | delete
    Thumbs up! I really enjoyed your lens. I did a lens on the same topic but with a different angle, would you check it out and give me your educated feedback? There aren't many of us thinking on this topic, so your contribution would help me a lot.
    http://www.squidoo.com/data-information-and-storytelling
  • hlkljgk Jun 23, 2009 @ 3:11 pm | delete
    great lens. thanks for the feature!
  • GaryGeo Jun 19, 2009 @ 9:58 am | delete
    Thanks so much for the comments.
  • BailBondsman Jun 19, 2009 @ 2:18 am | delete
    Wow, I like it. Good job, very interesting. Love the napolean visual
  • Velociryx Jun 18, 2009 @ 11:32 pm | delete
    Fascinating topic, and one I had not thought much about until reading this! I'm hooked! :)

    -=Vel=-

A few notes from Squidoo founder Seth Godin on making Charts

Seth chimes in on Data Visualization with 4 steps for great charts:
1. Don't let popular spreadsheets be in charge of the way you look
2. Tell a story
3. Follow some simple rules
4. Break some other rules

A link to Seth's post

by

GaryGeo

My interest from (professional to personal) business intelligence, the web, programming, gadgets, chess, bbq, jeeping and family time (3 under 4).

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