High Dimension Visualization

in Political Science:
How to make beautiful data displays

David Sparks
Duke University
Visualization: Three arbitrary categories
• Infographics: Not what I’m talking about
• Primarily factoids
• Statistical Graphics: Make an argument
• Distilled representation of the results of analysis
• Information Visualization: Show the data
• Often high-dimensional, large-N
Visualization: Three arbitrary categories
• Infographics: Not what I’m talking about
• Primarily factoids
• Statistical Graphics: Make an argument
• Distilled representation of the results of analysis
• Information Visualization: Show the data
• Often high-dimensional, large-N
Factoids, not data

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/naps/
Explanations, not data

http://www.dnapolicy.org/resources/Cloning_infographic_final.jpg
Stereotypes, not data

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/leftvright_world.html
Stereotypes, not data

David McCandless and Stefanie Posavec

Nothing new (1854)

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com
PowerPoint as the enemy

The New York Times

Framing

http://docs.house.gov/gopleader/House-Democrats-Health-Plan.pdf
Visualization: Three arbitrary categories
• Infographics: Not what I’m talking about
• Factoids
• Statistical Graphics: Make an argument
• Distilled representation of the results of analysis
• Information Visualization: Show the data
• Often high-dimensional, large-N
Statistical Graphics
• Gelman:
• Make use of familiar forms
• Discovery of the unexpected
• Graphics as alternative to tables and models
• Distilled, reduced, minimized
• Make an argument
• Don’t mislead
Very unnecessary graph, use a table

http://www.neuroscience.com/graphic.html
One number, in text

USDoL via http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/?p=266

Why toroidal?

http://www.nevron.com/
Superfluity

Edward Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

Misleading graphs

• See: How to Lie With Statistics (Huff 1954)

• Breaking from convention can be

(intentionally) misleading
Poor scaling

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201007010030
Bad math

http://eagereyes.org/blog/2009/bring-out-your-dreadful-charts
Good color

http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2009/
Good graphs: Model reporting
Good graphs: Model reporting
Good graphs: Model reporting
Good graphs: Model reporting
Good graphs: Model reporting
Visualization: Three arbitrary categories
• Infographics: Not what I’m talking about
• Factoids
• Statistical Graphics: Make an argument
• Distilled representation of the results of analysis
• Information Visualization: Show the data
• Often high-dimensional, large-N
Information Visualization
• Gelman:
• Creative, cutting-edge
• Visual puzzles
• Alternatives to photos and cartoons
• High density often necessary for multiple
dimensions
• Macro- and micro-level information
• Showing data, not presenting results
Network ties

• Inherently multidimensional

• n × n Matrix of 0/1 for tie/no tie between

each pair of nodes

• Thus, data is n dimensional

Making a point

arbitrarian.wordpress.com
Macro impressions

miller-mccune.com
Micro detail
A story in multiple dimensions
Challenge: To illustrate an institutional history
through the movement of its agents

Subject: Partisanship, geography and ideology

in the U.S. Senate

Solution: Timeline depicting breadth and detail

Big picture

http://www.duke.edu/~dbs9/senatehistory.html
Closer view
Specific detail

url citation
Same data, multiple representations

url citation
Movement over time

url citation
Different audience, different approach
Different audience, different approach
A history in multiple dimensions
Challenge: To illustrate political history and
dynamics through electoral results

Subject: Partisanship, geography and

transformation in U.S. politics

Solution: Maps with a third dimension encoded

in color
Throwing away data
Continuous choropleth
Distortion to incorporate weight
Three parties
Isarithmic approach
Small multiple time series
Interpolated isarithmic
• More fluid transitions
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4h62jRiUcc&fmt=22
• Some issues:
• Map projection
• Interpolation
• Color scheme
• Does convey a lot of information, and does
appear to have made (some) people think.
Making distinctions
To recap:
• Statistical graphics
• Simple, familiar
• Show conclusions, make an argument
• Information visualization/Data display
• Deep, multi-level
• Show data, allow exploration
• What about high-dimensional statistical
graphics?
Combining multiple needs
• 132,480 simulations of Congressional voting
• Depicting the effect of parameters on
estimates of ideological dimensionality
• Parameters of interest:
• True dimensionality
• Separation between party means
• Ideological versus distributive motivations

Challenge: illustrate how a relationship

between two variables is influenced by other
variables
Iteration 1
Iteration 2
Iteration 3
Iteration 4
Iteration 5
Iteration 6 (Final)
Conclusions
Let ends determine means

Don’t be misleading

Think about conventions

Make the viewer’s job easy

Conclusions
Let ends determine means

Don’t be misleading

Think about conventions

Make the viewer’s job easy

Conclusions
Let ends determine means

Don’t be misleading

Think about conventions

Make the viewer’s job easy

Conclusions
Let ends determine means

Don’t be misleading

Think about conventions

Make the viewer’s job easy

Conclusions
Let ends determine means

Don’t be misleading

Think about conventions

Make the viewer’s job easy

Where to go from here?
Think about the rhetoric of graphics

Google “Edward Tufte,” “Hadley Wickham”

Visit www.duke.edu/~cdd11/tex.html

Interested in tutorial session?

Any questions?

Thanks

d.sparks@duke.edu
sites.google.com/site/dsparks