UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

Data visualization workshop

Peter Speyer Kyle Foreman

Director of Data Development PhD Candidate

IHME Imperial CollegeJune 18, 2013

Agenda

• Introduction

• Interactive visualizations

• GBD visualizations: examples in a research setting

• The main steps for visualizing data

• Practical example

• Final questions

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Why do we visualize data?

Review data

• Make sense of large amountsof data

• Explore patterns and trends

• Evaluate research results

• Find stories

Communicate results

• Make data engaging

• Cut through the clutter

• Let users explore the data

• Use for presentations

• Tell stories

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4John Snow’s map of cholera cases in London, 1854

5Florence Nightingale, Deaths on Crimean Peninsula, 1858

6Charles Joseph Minard’s map of Napoleon’s Russian campaign of 1812, published 1869

7Gapminder World, http://www.gapminder.org, founded 2005

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“People are generally better persuaded

by the reasons

which they have themselves discovered 

than by those

which have come into the mind of others”

Blaise Pascal

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Agenda

• Introduction

• Interactive visualizations

• GBD visualizations: examples in a research setting

• The main steps for visualizing data

• Practical example

• Final questions

10

Agenda

• Introduction

• Interactive visualizations

• GBD visualizations: examples in a research setting

• The main steps for visualizing data

• Practical example

• Final questions

11

Global Burden of Disease 2010 - Results

291 causes/4 hierarchical levels

67 risk factors/2 levels

21 age groups (3 infant age groups, 1-4, 5-9… 75-79,

80+)

Female/male/both

187 countries

1990, 2005, 2010

4 key metrics (deaths, YLLs, YLDs,

DALYs)

Uncertainty bounds 12

Use of visualizations for research

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Improving the research work flow:

Mortality Visualization

COD Visualization

Review results:

GBD Compare

Share results & tell stories:

GBD Cause Patterns

GBD Arrow Diagrams

Evaluating policy impact:

Benchmarking tool

Agenda

• Introduction

• Interactive visualizations

• GBD visualizations: examples in a research setting

• The main steps for visualizing data

• Practical example

• Final questions

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Be clear about your objectives

• What do I want to do/ communicate?

• Am I telling a story or letting users explore?

• What is my audience? How much do they know about the topic? About statistics? About visualizations?

15HikingArtist via Flickr

Prepare the data

• Identify all relevant available data

• Become intimate with your dataset(s): metrics, units, dimensions, uncertainty

• Prepare data: Excel, Google Refine, Data Wrangler, AP’s Overview

16Kikishua via Flickr

Build it

• Select the right type of visual– Highlight your point

– Keep it simple

• Select the degree of interactivity

• Select the right visualization tool:start simple– Excel

– Public tools: Google Motion Charts,Tableau Public, ArcGIS.com

– Custom coding: D3.js, Highcharts

– Maps: visualization vs. GIS

17Edwc via Flickr

Final thoughts

• Facilitate viral communication– Permalinks

– Social media integration

– Embedding visualizations

– Download screenshot

• Working with software developers– Requirements

– Testing

– Documentation

– Priorities

18ocean.flynn via Flickr

How do I know if I succeeded?

19Mr. Aktugan via Flickr

Further reading & inspiration

• http://flowingdata.com/

• http://blog.visual.ly/

• http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/

• http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/

• http://visualization.geblogs.com/

• http://eagereyes.org/

• http://chartporn.org/

• http://worldbank.tumblr.com/

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Agenda

• Introduction

• Interactive visualizations

• GBD visualizations: examples in a research setting

• The main steps for visualizing data

• Practical example

• Final questions

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Questions?

speyer@uw.edu

kyleforeman@gmail.com

http://ihmeuw.org/gbd

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