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Representation

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Information Visualization

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Abstract

Illustrates some of the many ways in which data can usefully be transformed into images that are more easily understood. Attention is paid to limitations imposed by the human visual processing system, and to the considerable benefits that can be achieved by interaction.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The second half of this report contains food recipes of the day. However, it is strongly recommended that grim details of the Crimean hospitals should not be perused before eating Nightingale’s – or indeed anyone else’s – recipes!.

  2. 2.

    As defined by Bertin (1967, 1983, p 73), ‘value’ is not restricted to a grey scale. As Bertin remarks, “One can pass from black to white by greys, by blues or by reds …’

  3. 3.

    Only the 25 %, 50 % (median) and 75 % quartiles are shown. Whiskers are omitted to reduce visual clutter.

  4. 4.

    A comment taken from Matthew Ericson’s keynote address at IEEE InfoVis 2007.

  5. 5.

    The 13 attributes are: Model; Release date; Max resolution; Low resolution; Effective pixels; Zoom wide (W); Zoom tele (T); Normal focus range; Macro focus range; Storage included; Weight (inc. batteries); Dimensions; Price.

  6. 6.

    The beneficial effect of animated transitions is revisited in Sect. 3.6.

  7. 7.

    Many representations of relational data require prior, and sometimes extensive, computation. This important topic is extensive and is not the subject of this book.

  8. 8.

    relation (n): a logical or natural association between two or more things; relevance of one to another; connection.

  9. 9.

    If, as discussed in Sect. 3.5, the typical reader of the New York Times feels challenged by scatter plots, it would be of interest to know their reaction to, and understanding of, Venn diagrams.

  10. 10.

    Note the designated root node: you can pick up a tree by any other node and it still has the properties of a tree.

  11. 11.

    The Sunburst display is often classed as a ‘Space-filling technique’ in view of its tendency to make maximal use of display space, though the Tree Map can occupy a full rectangular display.

  12. 12.

    See the discussion of ‘Focus+Context’ in Chap. 4.

  13. 13.

    The encoding of vital human signs such as blood pressure in sound was found to be supportive of an anaesthetist’s task during long operations (Watson et al 1999; Watson and Sanderson 2004). An example of olfactory encoding is provided by the practice adopted by drivers of express steam locomotives of embedding aniseed balls within those parts of the engine that might get overheated and, in so doing, release the smell of anis that could be detected in the driver’s cab.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Robert Spence

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  1. Robert Spence
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Exercises

Exercises

3.1.1 Exercise 3.1

Five students have taken exams in eight subjects and for each subject a maximum mark of ten has been assigned. Make a list of the questions that might be asked of this data by (a) a parent (b) a student (c) a subject teacher and (d) the head teacher. Aim for a total of at least ten questions. Write the questions on Post-Its and stick them on a wall, together with those of your colleagues, for reference during Exercise 3.2.

3.1.2 Exercise 3.2

The exam performance of the five students mentioned in Exercise 3.1 is shown below

Student

A

B

C

D

E

Subject

Art

10

1

5

3

2

Science

1

10

5

4

9

History

8

5

7

1

1

Sport

2

9

5

10

4

Physics

–

1

2

3

1

English

2

8

6

8

5

Chemistry

4

1

1

1

4

Mathematics

10

1

5

4

2

Without using a computer in any way, design and sketch one static representation of this data: no interaction with the representation is to be considered. Then see if it answers any of the questions generated in Exercise 3.1. Decide whether your representation exhibits object visibility or attribute visibility.

3.1.3 Exercise 3.3

See if you can effectively modify the representation you designed for Exercise 3.2 to indicate whether each exam result was an improvement on the score achieved the previous year.

3.1.4 Exercise 3.4

Figure 3.89 shows a student’s suggested representation of the data shown in Exercise 3.2. Critique this design, commenting on its advantages and disadvantages, and decide how the representation might usefully be modified. Incorporate these modifications in your own redesign.

Fig. 3.89
figure 89

Sketched representation of the data of Exercise 3.2 (Courtesy Max A.C. Poynton)

Full size image

3.1.5 Exercise 3.5

Compose a mosaic plot representation of the Titanic data (Table 3.1) but using a different sequence of steps (for example survival – > gender – > class – > adult/child). List the observations that can readily be made by looking at the result. Are they different from those triggered by the representations derived from Fig. 3.15?

3.1.6 Exercise 3.6

The London Underground transportation map contains no distance or journey time encoding. With sketches, show how this data can be represented. Would it be useful?

3.1.7 Exercise 3.7

For your school or university or department (real or imaginary) design a representation of scholastic achievements (e.g., marks in 12 subjects in each of 5 year groups) that will show not only the general level obtained but also (1) the way in which achievement levels are changing, (2) the proportion of students obtaining better than a pass mark, and (3) the number of students taking a particular subject. Design the representation so that it can be printed on a card that slides easily into the pocket (e.g., one-third of A4).

3.1.8 Exercise 3.8

Sketch possible static representations of human relationships, both formal (e.g., marriage, births, deaths, divorce) and informal (e.g., co-habiting), test them on real examples and identify the advantages and disadvantages of each.

3.1.9 Exercise 3.9

Bus, metro and train routes are typically represented by annotated lines between nodes. However, in some large cities (London, for example) there are so many routes that a journey may well involve intermediate changes and be very difficult to plan. Explore the potential of adding, to the node-link route representation, some overall directional indicators that give a ‘first glance’ suggestion as to which route might be best for a given journey.

3.1.10 Exercise 3.10

Select one of the folders on your laptop which contains at least two levels of hierarchy and draw a treemap representation of its contents.

3.1.11 Exercise 3.11

Repeat Exercise 3.10 and sketch a hyperbolic browser representation.

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Spence, R. (2014). Representation. In: Information Visualization. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07341-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07341-5_3

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