An Intro to Data Visualization Presented by John Ashley, Nik Reed & DanWales

August 19, 2014

Thank you for being here today

Presenter:

John Ashley Director, Financial Systems & Projects Cozen O’Connor

WHAT IS

EXPLORE DATA

REVEAL

&

HALLEY

http://euclid.psych.yorku.ca/

PLAYFAIR

Wikipedia

MINARD

Wikipedia

1,200

1,400

1,600

1,800

2,000

2,200

2,400

Charlotte Atlanta Boston Houston Chicago

TUKEY

Data graphics should

draw the viewer’s

attention to the sense

and substance of the data,

not to something else.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Edward R. Tufte, 1983

show. the.

DATA.

data-ink

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Edward R. Tufte, 1983

ratio

avoid DISTORTION

presentation

exploration

TECHNIQUE

STORY WHAT’S THE

Plot the data

Position

Length

Angle

Direction

Area

Volume

Saturation

Hue

VISUAL CUES

Ranked High to Low on

Perception Accuracy

2

3

4

5

6

7

January February March April

length

strategically color

use

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

January February March April

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

January February March April

Source: New York Times

The smaller circle in each pair is

what percentage of the area of

the larger circle?

Beware of Circles

80% 65% 50% 35% 25% 15%

SYSTEM COORDINATE

Pie Danger!

http://www.columnfivemedia.com/work-items/infographic-true-colors-what-your-brand-colors-say-about-your-business

Pie Danger!

http://www.columnfivemedia.com/work-items/infographic-true-colors-what-your-brand-colors-say-about-your-business

SCALE

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4

Numerical

Categorical

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

SCALE APPROPRIATELY

CONTEXT Rising Sales for

ACME Dynamite

Alpha

Omega

Theta

Gamma

Epsilon

Beta

Focus

LABEL ACCURATELY

REVIEW EDIT

What you show

can be as important as

what you hide.

~Alberto Cairo

Resources

Data Points

Nathan Yau

The Functional Art

Alberto Cairo

The Visual Display

of Quantitative Information

Edward Tufte

The Wall Street Journal

Guide to Information Graphics

Dona Wong

Octagon and Emails

Ranking lawyers against each other

Impact on Behavior

Phenomenal—Speeds drop 16 days over the recession

DATA VISUALIZATION AN INTRO TO