Getting Started with Data Visualization - Stanford University

Getting Started with Data Visualization Geoff McGhee Tooling Up for Digital Humanities Seminar May 6, 2011

Dealing with Data Explosion of Electronic Information • 2003 estimate: 5 exabytes/day* new info • Open government/transparency movements • E-commerce, electronic record-keeping • Digitization of media (photos, music, books...) • Remote sensors, RFID tags, POS systems • Plummeting Cost of Storage • Data formats (XML, JSON, RDF… ), APIs • Social media

* Exabyte = 1 million terabytes

Dealing with Data The Promise of Data Visualization

Using the Eye-Brain Connection • Bypass language centers, go direct to the visual cortex • Leverage ability to recognize patterns, visual sense-making • Powerful graphics chips enable animation, live data processing possible

Map of New Brainland by Unit Seven via Flickr

Roles of Data Visualization


Making Sense of New Information • Data that reveals previously unknown insights into patterns of life • Visualization as a way to “throw things on the wall” and examine Google N-Gram Viewer

• Things that used to be unknown, unknowable, or impractical to know • Less about visualization than the data

Visualization as Mirror Visualizing New Information

“Tourists vs. Locals,” Eric Fischer, (2010) http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/sets/72157624209158632/

Visualization as Mirror Remix Visualizing New Information

“Flickr Flow,” Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg (2009) http://hint.fm/projects/flickr/

Visualization as Mirror Visualizing New Information

“GameDay,” Major League Baseball (2011) http://mlb.mlb.com

Visualizing New Information

“Good Morning,” Jer Thorp (2009) http://blog.blprnt.com/blog/blprnt/goodmorning


Remix: The Familiar Through a New Lens • Innovations in graphic display can change how we experience an idea • Less about data than the visualization • “Now I see it”

Visualization as Remix

“Here and There,” Berg Design (2009) http://berglondon.com/projects/hat/


“River Maps,” Daniel Huffman (2011) http://somethingaboutmaps.wordpress.com/river-maps/


“River Maps,” Daniel Huffman (2011) http://somethingaboutmaps.wordpress.com/river-maps/


The New York Times (2009) http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/06/business/economy/unemployment-lines.html


Environment for Exploration • Tool for individual or collective exploration • Can show same data in multiple dimensions, like time/space • Search, filter, drill down to details Analyzing OCR Quality of Newspapers

• Ideally, mark and share discoveries within the tool

Visualization as Environment for Mirror Exploration

“Mapping America: Every City, Every Block,” The New York Times (2010) http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer

Visualization as Environment for Mirror Exploration

“Assessing Digitization Quality,” Bill Lane Center for the American West/ University of North Texas (2011) http://mappingtexts.org

Life Cycle of Visualizations Gathering Data

Analyzing It

Sharing Findings

Discovery/ Acquisition

Analysis/Exploratory Visualization

Publication

Cleaning/ “Munging”


Analyzing It

Sharing Findings



Publication

Original Research Spreadsheets Databases Digitized Media Other Downloads Public Data Archives/Libraries Academic Partners Purchase Scraping Junar Outwit Hub ScraperWiki



Analyzing It

Sharing Findings



Publication




Analyzing It

Sharing Findings



Publication




Analyzing It

Sharing Findings



Publication


Cleaning/ “Munging” Normalization, Format Conversion Google Refine Data Wrangler Mr. Data Converter


Analyzing It

Sharing Findings



Publication



Google Refine demo

Data Visualization Workflow Gathering Data

Analyzing It

Sharing Findings



Publication




Analyzing It

Sharing Findings



Publication




Analyzing It

Sharing Findings



Publication




Analyzing It

Sharing Findings




Publication

Normalization, Format Conversion

Web Services Google Spreadsheets Google Fusion Tables IBM ManyEyes


Google Refine Data Wrangler Mr. Data Converter Applications Tableau/Tableau Public MS Office, OpenOffice Gephi Node XL (plug-in for Excel) Spotfire R Processing


Analyzing It

Sharing Findings




Publication





Getting Started with Visualization Free and Web-Based Applications

IBM ManyEyes

http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com

Pros: Easy as pie Many different chart forms Interactivity Bring your own data, or use existing data set Cons: Java applets are slow, clunky Little design control

Easy but unpolished No control over style Little control over functionality


Analyzing It

Sharing Findings




Publication






Analyzing It

Sharing Findings




Publication



Static Visualizations Previous tools + Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop



Animated Visualizations Processing Adobe Flash Adobe After Effects Interactive/Web Visualizations HTML5 Protovis D3 http://processingjs.org/ Adobe Flash or Flex Processing


Analyzing It

Sharing Findings




Publication



Static Visualizations Previous tools + Adobe Illustrator REFINEMENT Adobe Photoshop



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Analyzing It

Sharing Findings




Publication



Static Visualizations Previous tools + Adobe Illustrator refinement Adobe Photoshop



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Animated Visualizations Processing COMMONLY USED FOR NEWS Adobe Flash Adobe After Effects Interactive/Web Visualizations HTML5 Protovis D3 http://processingjs.org/ Adobe Flash or Flex Processing


Analyzing It

Sharing Findings




Publication






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Animated Visualizations

COMMON FOR Processing ART Adobe Flash Adobe After Effects Interactive/Web Visualizations HTML5 Protovis D3 http://processingjs.org/ Adobe Flash or Flex Processing


Analyzing It

Sharing Findings




Publication






}

Animated Visualizations

WON’T WORK Processing Adobe Flash ON IPHONE/IPAD Adobe After Effects Interactive/Web Visualizations HTML5 Protovis D3 http://processingjs.org/ Adobe Flash or Flex Processing


Analyzing It

Sharing Findings




Publication






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Video Documentary

Video Documentary

datajournalism.stanford.edu

Thanks! [email protected] @mcgeoff

Getting Started with Data Visualization - Stanford University

Getting Started with Data Visualization - Stanford University

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