Principles of Data Visualization I

Eamonn Maguire
CERN School of Computing, Israel
October 2018
A lot of the content for this introduction
comes from this book from Prof. Tamara
Munzner (UBC, Vancouver, Canada) which I
created the illustrations for.

If you’re interested in learning more, it’s a

great book to check out :)
2
Visualization

The role of visualization systems is to provide visual representations of datasets that

help people carry out tasks more effectively.

Tamara Munzner

A Visualization should:
1. Save time
2. Have a clear purpose*
3. Include only the relevant content*
4. Encodes data/information appropriately

* from Noel Illinsky, http://complexdiagrams.com/

3
Visualization

The role of visualization systems is to provide visual representations of datasets that

help people carry out tasks more effectively.
Visualization is suitable when there is a need to augment human capabilities
rather than replace people with computational decision-making methods.

Tamara Munzner

A Visualization should:
1. Save time
2. Have a clear purpose*
3. Include only the relevant content*
4. Encodes data/information appropriately

* from Noel Illinsky, http://complexdiagrams.com/

3
 Visualization
The role of visualization systems is to provide visual representations of datasets
that help people carry out tasks more effectively.

External representation:
replace cognition with
perception

4
 Visualization
The role of visualization systems is to provide visual representations of datasets
that help people carry out tasks more effectively.

External representation:
replace cognition with
perception

4
 Visualization
The role of visualization systems is to provide visual representations of datasets
that help people carry out tasks more effectively.

External representation:
replace cognition with
perception
Cerebral: Visualizing Multiple Experimental Conditions
on a Graph with Biological Context. Barsky, Munzner,
Gardy, and Kincaid. IEEE TVCG (Proc. InfoVis) 14(6):
1253-1260, 2008.]

4
What are we Why are we How can we
visualising? visualising it? visualise?

Major data types & What is the need How can we

classifications of for this visualize?
them visualization?

The components
Why do the users of a visualization.
need this, and
what do they
need to be able Good and bad
to do with it? practices.

5
What are we Why are we How can we
visualising? visualising it? visualise?

Major data types & What is the need How can we

classifications of for this visualize?
them visualization?

The components
Why do the users of a visualization.
need this, and
what do they
need to be able Good and bad
to do with it? practices.

6
What are we visualising?

7
What are we visualising?

For static data, we have fixed

scales.

We know our data range,

therefore scales will not
change.

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What are we visualising?

For static data, we have fixed For dynamic data, the

scales. observed min and max values
can change, therefore scales
We know our data range, will change.
therefore scales will not
change. This can have big
consequences for the
readability of our visualization.

8
What are you visualising?
The branches of data visualization

Information Visualization Scientific Visualization

Position is derived. Position is given.
Incl. GeoVis e.g. detector or medical visualizations
We decide what is on the X We have the X, Y, and Z coordinates
and Y axis, and what we do changes of a cell in ATLAS, we show the energy
the information we extract. deposit left here. We don’t choose,
the data tells us.
What are you visualising?
The branches of data visualization

Information Visualization Scientific Visualization

Position is derived. Position is given.
Incl. GeoVis e.g. detector or medical visualizations
We decide what is on the X We have the X, Y, and Z coordinates
and Y axis, and what we do changes of a cell in ATLAS, we show the energy
the information we extract. deposit left here. We don’t choose,
the data tells us.
What are we Why are we How can we
visualising? visualising it? visualise?

Major data types & What is the need How can we

classifications of for this visualize?
them visualization?

The components
Why do the users of a visualization.
need this, and
what do they
need to be able Good and bad
to do with it? practices.

9
Why are we visualising?
The role of visualisation systems is to provide visual representations of
datasets that help people carry out tasks more effectively.

The statistics would lead us to

believing that everything is the
same

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Why are we visualising?

Given a large matrix, or even a large series of numbers, it’s difficult for humans to
‘see’ patterns in the data.

With a visualisation we want to transition a cognitively demanding task to a

perceptual (less demanding) one.

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Why are we visualising?

We can also use visualisation to

better communicate concepts
that aren’t easily explained using
text alone.

https://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg1/fig2-32.htm 12
Why are we visualising?
Every visualisation should be thought of as a product
of what actions the user needs to take to get to their objective (target)

13
Why are we visualising?
Every visualisation should be thought of as a product
of what actions the user needs to take to get to their objective (target)

13
Why are we visualising?
Every visualisation should be thought of as a product
of what actions the user needs to take to get to their objective (target)

Always keep in mind why you’re doing something. If what you create does not show
what you intended, confuses, or misleads, it’s time to rethink :) 13
 Discover
Finding new insights in your data
Implies a level of interactivity to query, compare, correlate etc.

Work with Ilias Koutsakis and Gilles Louppe

What are we Why are we How can we
visualising? visualising it? visualise?

Major data types & What is the need How can we

classifications of for this visualize?
them visualization?

The components
Why do the users of a visualization.
need this, and
what do they
need to be able Good and bad
to do with it? practices.

14
How can you encode information optimally?

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How can you encode information optimally?

15
If we don’t follow grammatical rules or spell correctly, the
meaning of text can be lost.

Data

We want to maximise
information gained

Encoder Insights
Decoder
(Us) User
Error
We want to minimise
the error

Task

The same applies for visualisations. We can compose

visualisations using a vocabulary (shapes, colour, texture,…),
and a grammar. If we learn these, we can do better when it
comes to communicating visually.
Graphs are like jokes.
If you have to explain them, they didn’t work.
Anon.

How can you encode information optimally? "17

How can you encode information optimally?

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Size & Saturation

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And that’s just a really simple low dimensional example

Moreover, all of these visualizations encode the information,

but the decode error (interpreting, comparing, …) for each graph is
different

But, why?

19
Our perception system does not behave linearly.
Some stimuli are perceived less or more than
intended.

20
Stevens, 1975
 We have to be careful when mapping data
to the visual world
Some visual channels are more effective for some data types
over others.

How can you encode information optimally? 21

22
 Cleveland & McGill’s Results 1984

Positions
1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Log Error

Heer and Bostock 2010 Crowdsourced Results

Angles

Circular
Areas

Rectangular
areas
(aligned or in a
treemap)

1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0

How can you encode information optimally? Log Error 23
T6: Pie charts have also been studied in more detail recently

It’s quite clear that bar charts are a more effective visual encoding
here than pie charts… our visual system is very good at judging
lengths, but not so much at judging angles and areas.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piecharts.svg

How can you encode information optimally? 24

T6: Pie charts have also been studied in more detail recently

When someone reads or compares values in a pie chart, what are

they doing? Comparing angles, areas, length of arc?

Robert Kosara and Drew Skau. 2016. Judgment error in pie chart variations. In Proceedings of the Eurographics: Short Papers (EuroVis '16).
Eurographics Association, Goslar Germany, Germany, 91-95. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2312/eurovisshort.20161167
Drew Skau and Robert Kosara. 2016. Arcs, Angles, or Areas: Individual Data Encodings in Pie and Donut Charts. Comput. Graph.
Forum 35, 3 (June 2016), 121-130. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/cgf.12888
25
Things aren’t so bad :)
 Positions
T1/T7: Bar charts are better than areas…1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Log Error

Heer and Bostock 2010 Crowdsourced Results

Angles

Circular
Areas

Rectangular
areas
(aligned or in a
treemap)

1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0

Log Error

27
 Positions
T1/T7: Bar charts are better than areas…1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Log Error

Heer and Bostock 2010 Crowdsourced Results

Angles

Circular
Areas

Rectangular
areas
(aligned or in a
treemap)

1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0

Log Error

This is exactly the same data,

300 400 200 100 40 500
at the right scaling.
27
T8/T9: Different aspect ratios for rectangles also result in greater or
fewer errors

2/3 : 2/3 1:1 3/2 : 3/2 2/3 : 1 2/3 : 3/2 1 : 3/2

These results are directly relevant to treemap construction. 28

Aspect ratio is important!
For line charts there is a basic guideline on optimising plot aspect ratio to
have an average angle of 45 degrees from Cleveland et al, 1988.

The Shape Parameter of a Two-Variable Graph Multi-Scale Banking to 45 Degrees An Empirical Model of Slope Ratio
William Cleveland, Marylyn McGill, and Robert McGill
Jeffrey Heer, Maneesh Agrawala
Comparisons
Journal of the American Statistical IEEE Trans. Visualization & Comp. Graphics (Proc. Justin Talbot, John Gerth, Pat Hanrahan

Association, 83, 289–300, 1988 InfoVis), 12(5), 701–708, 2006 IEEE Trans. Visualization & Comp. Graphics
(Proc. InfoVis), 2012
29
HOW

We have to be careful when mapping

data to the visual world
Some visual channels are more effective for some
data types over others.

Some data has a natural mapping that our brains expect given
certain types of data

30
Natural Mappings

31
HOW

We have to be careful when mapping

data to the visual world

Some visual channels are more effective for some

data types over others.
Some data has a natural mapping that our
brains expect given certain types of data

There are many intricacies of the visual system that must be considered

32
 The pop-out effect
We pre-attentively process a scene, and some visual elements
stand out more than others.

• Parallel processing on many individual channels

– speed independent of distractor count
– speed depends on channel and amount of difference from
distractors
• Serial search for (almost all) combinations
– speed depends on number of distractors
33
 The pop-out effect
We pre-attentively process a scene, and some visual elements
stand out more than others.

• Parallel processing on many individual channels

– speed independent of distractor count
– speed depends on channel and amount of difference from
distractors
• Serial search for (almost all) combinations
– speed depends on number of distractors
33
 The pop-out effect
We pre-attentively process a scene, and some visual elements
stand out more than others.

• Parallel processing on many individual channels

– speed independent of distractor count
– speed depends on channel and amount of difference from
distractors
• Serial search for (almost all) combinations
– speed depends on number of distractors
33
 The pop-out effect
We pre-attentively process a scene, and some visual elements
stand out more than others.

• Parallel processing on many individual channels

– speed independent of distractor count
– speed depends on channel and amount of difference from
distractors
• Serial search for (almost all) combinations
– speed depends on number of distractors
33
 The pop-out effect
We pre-attentively process a scene, and some visual elements
stand out more than others.

• Parallel processing on many individual channels

– speed independent of distractor count
– speed depends on channel and amount of difference from
distractors
• Serial search for (almost all) combinations
– speed depends on number of distractors
33
34
Not all exhibit the pop-out effect!

34
Not all exhibit the pop-out effect!
Parallel line pairs do not pop out from tilted pairs…

34
Not all exhibit the pop-out effect!
Parallel line pairs do not pop out from tilted pairs…
And not all visual channels pop out as quickly as other. E.g. colour is always on
top. 34
Relative Comparison

35
Relative Comparison

35
Relative Comparison

36
Relative Comparison

36px

36
Relative Comparison

4 values Unordered Unaligned

37
Relative Comparison

4 values Unordered Unaligned

11 values Unordered Unaligned

37
Relative Comparison

4 values

Aligned Unordered

38
Relative Comparison

4 values

Aligned Unordered

8 values
Aligned Unordered

38
Relative Comparison

8 values

20 values

39
A) Known and Unknown Target Search B) Subitizing (how many colours?)
Random Grouped
Random Grouped

Target shown before hand (known) or not shown (unknown). Which grid has more colours?
The unique colour here is the orange square.

7 8

C) Response Time and Accuracy Results

Unknown Target Search Unknown Target Search

Grouped Grouped
Random Random
Known Target Search
Grouped
Known Target Search Random
Grouped Subitizing
Random
Grouped
Random
Colour Variety
Colour Variety

How Capacity Limits of Attention Influence Information Visualization Effectiveness.

Haroz S. and Whitney D., IEEE TVCG 2012 40
A) Known and Unknown Target Search B) Subitizing (how many colours?)
Random Grouped
Random Grouped

Target shown before hand (known) or not shown (unknown). Which grid has more colours?
The unique colour here is the orange square.

7 8

C) Response Time and Accuracy Results

Unknown Target Search Unknown Target Search

Grouped Grouped
Random Random
Known Target Search
Grouped
Known Target Search Random
Grouped Subitizing
Random
Grouped
Random
Colour Variety
Colour Variety

How Capacity Limits of Attention Influence Information Visualization Effectiveness.

Haroz S. and Whitney D., IEEE TVCG 2012 40
A) Known and Unknown Target Search B) Subitizing (how many colours?)
Random Grouped
Random Grouped

Target shown before hand (known) or not shown (unknown). Which grid has more colours?
The unique colour here is the orange square.

7 8

C) Response Time and Accuracy Results

Unknown Target Search Unknown Target Search

Grouped Grouped
Random Random
Known Target Search
Grouped
Known Target Search Random
Grouped Subitizing
Random
Grouped
Random
Colour Variety
Colour Variety

How Capacity Limits of Attention Influence Information Visualization Effectiveness.

Haroz S. and Whitney D., IEEE TVCG 2012 40
A) Known and Unknown Target Search B) Subitizing (how many colours?)
Random Grouped
Random Grouped

Target shown before hand (known) or not shown (unknown). Which grid has more colours?
The unique colour here is the orange square.

7 8

C) Response Time and Accuracy Results

Unknown Target Search Unknown Target Search

Grouped Grouped
Random Random
Known Target Search
Grouped
Known Target Search Random
Grouped Subitizing
Random
Grouped
Random
Colour Variety
Colour Variety

How Capacity Limits of Attention Influence Information Visualization Effectiveness.

Haroz S. and Whitney D., IEEE TVCG 2012 40
41
Gestalt Laws

A. Law of Closure B. Law of Similarity C. Law of Proximity D. Law of Connectedness E. Law of Symmetry

[ ]{ }( )

F. Law of Good G. Contour Saliency H. Law of Common Fate I. Law of Past J. Law of K. Figure/Ground
Continuation Experience Pragnanz

b
d

b
a c

42
Integral/Separable Dimensions

A and B have the same width.

However B and C are perceived
more alike even though they are
different widths and heights.

Width and Height are integral

dimensions

Dimension X Dimension X
Width

43
Integral/Separable Dimensions

A and B have the same width. A and B have the same

However B and C are perceived colour and are perceived
more alike even though they are more similar.
different widths and heights.
Colour and Height are
Width and Height are integral Separable dimensions
dimensions

Dimension X Dimension X Dimension X

Width Colour

43
 Integral/Separable Dimensions

Dimension X Dimension X Dimension X Dimension X Dimension X Dimension X

Width Orientation Colour Motion Motion Colour

Fully Integral Fully separable

44
HOW

We have to be careful when mapping

data to the visual world

Some visual channels are more effective for some

data types over others.
Some data has a natural mapping that our
brains expect given certain types of data
There are many visual tricks that can be observed due to
how the visual system works

We don’t see in 3D, and we have difficulties interpreting

information on the Z-axis.

45
2D always wins…

Thousands of points up/down and left/right

We can only see the outside shell of the world

Our visual system is not good at interpreting information on

the z-axis.
*3D is normally only used for exploration of inherently 3D information, such as
medical imaging data…
46
2D always wins…

These options, taken randomly from google image searches so how widely 3D is abused in
information visualisation. All of these charts are manipulating our perception of the data by
using the Z axis to occlude information…it would be avoided in 2D.
47
2D always wins…

48
2D always wins…

48
 2D always wins…

http://cms-results.web.cern.ch/cms-results/public-results/preliminary-results/BPH-14-008/index.html
49
HOW

We have to be careful when mapping

data to the visual world
Some visual channels are more effective for some
data types over others.
Some data has a natural mapping that our
brains expect given certain types of data
There are many visual tricks that can be observed due to
how the visual system works

We don’t see in 3D, and we have difficulties interpreting

information on the Z-axis.

Colour

50
Colour
The simplest, yet most abused of all visual encodings.

http://graphics.wsj.com/infectious-diseases-and-vaccines/
51
Colour
The simplest, yet most abused of all visual encodings.

The problem is that a smooth step in a value does not equate to a

smooth colour transition…
52
Colour
Additionally, colour is not equally binned in reality. We perceive
colours differently due to an increased sensitivity to the yellow part
of the spectrum…

Wavelength (nm)

UV IR

Visible Spectrum
53
Colour
Luminosity is also not stable across the colours, meaning some colours
will pop out more than others… and not always intentionally.

https://mycarta.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/the-rainbow-is-deadlong-live-the-rainbow-part-3/
54
Colour
Luminosity is also not stable across the colours, meaning some colours
will pop out more than others… and not always intentionally.

https://mycarta.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/the-rainbow-is-deadlong-live-the-rainbow-part-3/
54
 Colour
And how we perceive changes in hue is also very different.

Gregory compared the wavelength of light with the smallest observable difference
in hue (expressed as wavelength difference) 55
Is there a colour palette for scientific visualisation
that works?

56
 Colour
HSL linear L rainbow palette

https://mycarta.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/the-rainbow-is-deadlong-live-the-rainbow-part-3/

Kindlmann, G. Reinhard, E. and Creem, S., 2002, Face-based Luminance Matching for Perceptual Colormap
Generation, IEEE Proceedings of the conference on Visualization ’02 57
Colour
HSL linear L rainbow palette

These are available in matplotlib and therefore in seaborn, etc, so there’s no excuse :)

58
Colour
There are also lots of default colour maps that can be applied to
particular data types.

Categorical
Categorical
Binary

Categorical

Diverging Sequential

http://colorbrewer2.org/
59
Color

Here I’m showing the correlation between football player attributes.

Is the choice of colour map helping this comparison?

Categorical
Categorical
Binary

Categorical

Diverging Sequential

import seaborne as sns

sns.clustermap(fifa.corr(), cmap=‘Greys') 60
Color

Here I’m showing the correlation between football player attributes.

Is the choice of colour map helping this comparison?

Categorical
Categorical
Binary

Categorical

Diverging Sequential

But our value pivots around 0,

so the scale should be a
diverging one.

import seaborne as sns

sns.clustermap(fifa.corr(), cmap=‘Greys') 60
Color

Here I’m showing the correlation between football player attributes.

Is the choice of colour map helping this comparison?

Categorical
Categorical
Binary

Categorical

Diverging Sequential

But our value pivots around 0,

so the scale should be a
diverging one.

import seaborne as sns

sns.clustermap(fifa.corr(), cmap=‘Greys') 60
Color

Here I’m showing the correlation between football player attributes.

Is the choice of colour map helping this comparison?

Categorical
Categorical
Binary

Categorical

Diverging Sequential

But our value pivots around 0,

so the scale should be a
diverging one.

import seaborne as sns

sns.clustermap(fifa.corr(), cmap=‘Greys') 60
Color

Here I’m showing the correlation between football player attributes.

Is the choice of colour map helping this comparison?

import seaborn as sns

sns.clustermap(fifa.corr(), cmap=‘PuOr') 60
Color
You also don’t want to have too many colours.
Too many colours means that users have to remember what a colour
means. So a max of around 8 categories in a plot is recommended,
otherwise the ‘distance’ between colours becomes too small.

61
Color

Semantic relevance
Or just consistency

When there are many colours for example, we find it

difficult to remember abstract associations.

62
Color
What are semantically resonant colours?

Selecting Semantically-Resonant Colors for Data Visualization

Sharon Lin, Julie Fortuna, Chinmay Kulkarni, Maureen Stone, Jeffrey Heer
Computer Graphics Forum (Proc. EuroVis), 2013 63
Color
What are semantically resonant colours?

64
Color

Semantic colouring is a good idea in theory,

but there are limited areas where this really
works.

But, if you are going to use colour, try to think how you
can make it easier for users to decode the colour to the
category without constantly having to look up a legend.
That way, the decoding time is less.

Saving time…reducing cognitive load.

65