Data Visualization

Part 1: Introduction

Prof. Dr. Heike Leitte

TU Kaiserslautern

Wintersemester 2019/20
 Overview

1. Introduction
2. Charts
3. Perception and Design
4. Visualization Process
5. Vis of highdimensional/multivariate Data
6. Interaction
7. Visualization of graphs
8. Visualization of scalar fields
9. Color coding

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–1

 Overview

What is visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Why use visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

How to do visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

A short history of visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Visualization today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–2

 Overview

What is visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Why use visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

How to do visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

A short history of visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Visualization today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–3

 Definition

In the traditional (english) sense,

visualization is often a purely mental
process.

Oxford Dictionary:
visualize:
1. form a mental image of; imagine
2. make (something) visible to the eye

Google search – image results

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–4

 How can the computer help?

Flight connections USA – Volume rendering of a hand – Population density USA

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–5

 How can the computer help?

Visualization in the field of computer science commonly refers to data

visualization – i.e. making data visible to the human eye. This can be done
manually by a drawing, but often more easily and precisely using a computer.
Scientific visualization (aka data visualization) started as a subfield of
computer graphics and developed into an independent research area. Since
1990 the field has its own scientific conferences (IEEE VIS, EuroVis, PacificVis).
The following three definitions of data visualization show how the
understanding and problems changed over the last decades.
In the beginning, visualization was strongly concerned with simulation data
as occur, for example, in engineering, weather/climate research, or
geo-sciences. Back than, it was a major challenge to get pictures of this
large/3D/time-dependent data, which is reflected in this definition.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–6

 Computer interfaces in the 80s

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–7

 Definition 1987

McCormick, DeFanti, Brown, 19871 :

“
Visualization is a method of computing. It trans-
forms the symbolic into the geometric, enabling re-
searchers to observe their simulations and compu-
tations. Visualization offers a method for seeing
the unseen. [...] It studies those mechanisms in hu-

”
mans and computers which allow them in concert
to perceive, use and communicate visual informa-
tion.

1 McCormick,
B.H., T.A. DeFanti, M.D. Brown, Visualization in Scientific Computing,
Computer Graphics 21(6), November 1987
Data Visualization – Introduction 1–8
 Visualization in the 1980’s

Lorensen, W. E., & Cline, H. E. (1987, August). Marching cubes: A high resolution 3D
surface construction algorithm. In ACM siggraph computer graphics (Vol. 21, No. 4, pp.
163-169). ACM.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–9

 Computer interfaces in the 90s

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–10

 Definition 1999

In the 1990’s, interactive methods and data exploration became

more and more important as they were now more easily supported
by computers.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–11

 Definition 1999

Card, Mackinlay, Schneiderman, 19992 : Visualization is

“ ”
... the use of computer-supported, interactive, vi-
sual representations of data to amplify cognition.

2 Card, S. K., Mackinlay, J. D., & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Readings in information

visualization: using vision to think. Morgan Kaufmann.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–12
 Visualization in the 1990’s

Robertson, G. G., Mackinlay, J. D., & Card, S. K. (1991, April). Cone trees: animated 3D
visualizations of hierarchical information. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on
Human factors in computing systems (pp. 189-194). ACM.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–13

 Definition 2012

With the increasing availability of software tools, the question

”Which one is right for me?” becomes more and more important.
Munzner3 concentrates in her definition on effectiveness with
respect to a given task.

3 T. Munzner: Visualization Analysis and Design, AK Peters, 2014.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–14
 Definition 2012

Munzner, 2012:

“ ”
Computer-based visualization systems provide vi-
sual representations of datasets intended to help
people carry out some task more effectively.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–15

 Characteristics of data visualization

Data Visualization:

• Data Visualization supports data analysis by combining human

and computational skills.
• Computers work best with algorithms for well defined problems.
Humans are very fast with graphical information and are
mentally very flexible. The challenge of visualization is to strike
an optimal balance between the two: number crunching for the
computer, interpretation for the human + design of a good
interface.
• Data Visualization is very versatile and depends on available
soft- and hardware, and application domain.
• Guidelines exist for various problem classes, data types, and
application scenarios.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–16

 Modern visualization

In order to make good choices in visualization design, you have to

know about

• the existing techniques,

• visualization principles,
• human perception and information processing
• how to create visualizations using a computer.

The goal of this course is to give you a good (theoretical and

practical) understanding of these aspects of visualization and make
you ready to visualize the most common data types (using existing
tools or own programs).

We will start with a few examples to give you an idea:

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–17

 Examples of visualizations – Charts

http://www.datadynamics.com/help/activereports6/arCONChartTypes.html
Data Visualization – Introduction 1–18
 Examples of visualizations – Applications of network visualization

Visualization of the structure of a

website (colored dots stand for
different elements)

Visualization of social networks

(e.g. friends on facebook)

1) Holten D. Hierarchical edge bundles: visualization of

adjacency relations in hierarchical data. IEEE Trans Vis
Comput Graph 2006, 12:741 – 748.

The call graph of a software system1 .

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–19

 Examples of visualizations – Metabolic networks (Doing this manually?)

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–20

 Examples of visualizations – Medical imaging

[S. Bruckner – Volume rendering]

[wikipedia.org]

[wikipedia.org] – Isosurface

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–21

 Examples of visualizations – Movie summaries

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–22

 Overview

What is visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Why use visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

How to do visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

A short history of visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Visualization today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–23

 Why use visualization?

Describe the patterns in the GDP (gross domestic product)

of the following seven countries/regions:

source: http://www.mulinblog.com/data- visualization- matters/

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–24

 Why use visualization?

GDP of seven countries/regions over the last 150 years

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–25

 Why use visualization?

Visualization is particularly helpful and powerful when working with

• large amounts of data.

• complex and little understood data.
• abstract data (that is not inherently visual, e.g., friendships on
facebook).

In these settings, visualization supports the following tasks:

1. External cognition
2. Communication
3. Represenation of abstract information
4. Exploration
5. Increased productivity

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–26

 Visualization for external cognition

Donald Norman, “Things that make us smart: Defending human

attributes in the age of the machine”, Basic Books, 1993, p. 46.

“
The power of the unaided mind is highly overrated.
Without external aids, memory, thought, and rea-
soning are all constrained. But human intelligence
is highly flexible and adaptive, superb at inventing
procedures and objects that overcome its own lim-
its. The real powers come from devising external
aids that enhance cognitive abilities. How have we

”
increased memory, thought, and reasoning? By the
invention of external aids: It is things that make us
smart.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–27

 External cognition – Multiplication + Comparative analysis

54 * 48 = ?

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–28

 Visualization for communication

A. Brisbane, 1911:

“ Use a picture. It’s worth a thousand words.

”
Data Visualization – Introduction 1–29
 Visualization for communication

Humans perceive 75% of their environment visually and extract

relevant information. Hence, most people are very well trained at
interpreting visual information. For data visualizations, people also
need training → visual literacy.
Larkin and Simon4 compare the amount of effort it takes to extract
the same amount of information from textual and visual
representations. See the example on the next slide.

4 J.H. Larkin & H.A. Simon. ”Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand words”,

Cognitive Science 11:65-99, 1987

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–30
 Visualization for communication – Technical setup

Consider a problem given in the following natural language

statements. We have three pulleys, two weights, and some ropes,
arranged as follows:
1. The first weight is suspended from the left end of a rope
over Pulley A. The right end of this rope is attached to, and
partially supports, the second weight.
2. Pulley A is suspended from the left end of a rope that runs
over Pulley B, and under Pulley C. Pulley B is suspended
from the ceiling. The right end of the rope that runs under
Pulley C is attached to the ceiling.
3. Pulley C is attached to the second weight, supporting it
jointly with the right end of the first rope.
The pulleys and ropes are weightless; the pulleys are frictionless;
and the rope segments are all vertical, except where they run over
or under the pulley wheels. Find the ratio of the second to the
first weight, if the system is in equilibrium.

J.H. Larkin & H.A. Simon. ”Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand words”, Cognitive
Science 11:65-99, 1987

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–31

 Visualization for communication – Technical setup

Consider a problem given in the following natural language

statements. We have three pulleys, two weights, and some ropes,
arranged as follows:
1. The first weight is suspended from the left end of a rope
over Pulley A. The right end of this rope is attached to, and
partially supports, the second weight.
2. Pulley A is suspended from the left end of a rope that runs
over Pulley B, and under Pulley C. Pulley B is suspended
from the ceiling. The right end of the rope that runs under
Pulley C is attached to the ceiling.
3. Pulley C is attached to the second weight, supporting it
jointly with the right end of the first rope.
The pulleys and ropes are weightless; the pulleys are frictionless;
and the rope segments are all vertical, except where they run over
or under the pulley wheels. Find the ratio of the second to the
first weight, if the system is in equilibrium.

J.H. Larkin & H.A. Simon. ”Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand words”, Cognitive
Science 11:65-99, 1987

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–31

 Visualization for communication – Weather report

Weather chart [wetter.de]

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–32

 Visualization to represent of abstract information – Genome data

[Nielsen, C. B., Jackman, S. D., Birol, I., & Jones, S. J. (2009). ABySS-Explorer:
visualizing genome sequence assemblies. IEEE transactions on
visualization and computer graphics, 15(6), 881-888.]

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–33

 Visualization for exploration – Anscombes Quartett

The data below was designed by statistician Francis Anscombe (1973)

to demonstrate the importance of graphing data. All four datasets
have nearly identical simple statistical properties, which might lead
to the conclusion that they describe the same phenomenon.
Looking at the respective scatter plots for each dataset, we observe
very different patterns.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–34

 Visualization for exploration – Anscombes Quartett – Statistics

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–35

 Visualization for exploration – Anscombes Quartett – Visualizations

[wikipedia.org]
Data Visualization – Introduction 1–36
 Visualization for exploration – Anscombes Quartett – Automatic generation

https://www.autodeskresearch.com/publications/samestats
Matejka, J., & Fitzmaurice, G. (2017, May). Same stats, different graphs: generating datasets with varied appearance and identical statistics
through simulated annealing. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1290-1294). ACM.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–37

 Visualization for increased productivity

The automatic generation/support of visualizations can reduce the

workload significantly. In the above mentioned application areas
they also support reasoning, which also increases productivity.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–38

 Visualization for increased productivity

Most frequent comments on dating websites.

[Wattenberg, M., & Viegas, F. B. (2008). The word tree, an interactive visual concordance. IEEE transactions on visualization and computer
graphics, 14(6), 1221-1228.]

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–39

 Use cases of visualization

Visualization is not just what it looks like.

Visualization is how it works.

adopted form Steve Jobs’ comment on design

Visualization is not just about making pretty pictures, but about

supporting a process/task, such as: extrenalization, communication,
representation, exploration, and increased productivity.
A good choice of design (visual design + computational
preprocessing) strongly depends on the intended use case including
task, available software/hardware, types of users.
→ There is no one size fits all! (but a lot of good rules and
guidelines)

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–40

 Overview

What is visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Why use visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

How to do visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

A short history of visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Visualization today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–41

 Which programming language?

Ranking of programming languages:

Compare usage (GitHub) and discussion (Stack Overflow).

https://redmonk.com/sogrady/2019/03/20/language- rankings- 1- 19/

Popular languages (JavaScript, Java, Python, C#, C++) are frequently

used and discussed.
Data Visualization – Introduction 1–42
 Visualization libraries

Visualization libraries exist for all major programming languages.

Some examples are:

• JavaScript: D3 (interactive charts for the web)

• Java, C++: Qt, vtk, OpenGL (high-performance code for
computationally intensive tasks, e.g., volume rendering)
• Python: Matplotlib, Seaborn, bokeh, plotly (versatile libraries
with different levels of user control and functionality)

In this course we will use the python’s Bokeh library.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–43

 Visualization libraries

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–44

 Visualization libraries

Chris Moffitt https://pbpython.com/python- vis- flowchart.html

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–45
 Overview

What is visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Why use visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

How to do visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

A short history of visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Visualization today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–46

 A short history of visualization – Major epochs

Friendly, M. (2008). A brief history of data visualization. In Handbook of data visualization (pp. 15-56). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–47

 A short history of visualization

A large volume of literature on the topic is available. Recommended

ressources are:

• Friendly, M. (2008). A brief history of data visualization. In

Handbook of data visualization (pp. 15-56). Springer, Berlin,
Heidelberg.
• Books by Edward Tufte (https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/)
• Website for the Milestones project by M. Friendly:
http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery/milestone/

• Interactive chart by R.J. Andrews: https://infowetrust.com/scroll/

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–48

 A short history of visualization

1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–49

 A short history of visualization

1137 Yu Ji Tu, ”Map of the Tracks of Yu”

Chinese map carved into a stone (left)
and the respective drawing (right).

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Data Visualization – Introduction 1–49

 A short history of visualization

1330 Marine chart of the Mediterranean

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Data Visualization – Introduction 1–49

 A short history of visualization

1613 Investigation of sunspots

Galileo Galilei and Christoph Scheiner
discuss the origin of sunspots.

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Data Visualization – Introduction 1–49

 A short history of visualization

Contour lines 1752

First use of contour lines to map scalar
fields and augment classical maps.

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Data Visualization – Introduction 1–49

 A short history of visualization

Charts 1821
William Playfair develops the
first charts (line-, bar-, pie-chart).

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Data Visualization – Introduction 1–49

 A short history of visualization

Cholera map 1854

John Snow uses a dot map to illustrate
the connection between the quality of
the water source and cholera cases.

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Data Visualization – Introduction 1–49

 A short history of visualization

Napoleon’s Russian Campain 1869

Charles Minard combines in his
map six types of information.

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Data Visualization – Introduction 1–49

 A short history of visualization

Hugh Small, A Brief History of Florence Nightingale, Robinson, 2017.

Statistical graphics 1873

Florence Nightingale develops the po-
lar area diagram to show the suc-
cess of the sanitary reform in India.

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Data Visualization – Introduction 1–49

 A short history of visualization

Underground map 1933

Harry Beck presents a ”tidy”
version of the tube map.

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Data Visualization – Introduction 1–49

 A short history of visualization

Flight information 1933

The Czechoslovakia Air Transport
Company presents a concise map
contain rich flight information.

1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–49

 Overview

What is visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Why use visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

How to do visualization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

A short history of visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Visualization today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–50

 Information flow in visualization

interaction

measurement
system simulation vis graphic communication
data
event animation
process
object understanding knowledge analysis
exploration
concept about data

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–51

 Subfields in visualization

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Data Visualization – Introduction 1–52

 Subfields in visualization

• Scientific visualiation (SciVis): The oldest branch of visualization is

concerned with spatial data which originates from measurements of
simulations. Common application areas are natural sciences,
engineering, medicine and life sciences. The techniques in this area
have a strong mathematical background.
• Information visualization (InfoVis): InfoVis is concerned with the
visualization of non-spatial data as occure for examples in tables, data
bases, graphs, media data, and text files. Such data originates in all
areas of life and the research in this area concentrates strongly on
human-centered design.
• Visual analytics: The central idea of visual analytics is to keep the
human in the loop, and support them with automatic tools in data
exploration. Hence, VA designs are commonly interactive and integrate
algorithms from data mining.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–53

 Visualization tools – Spatial data

• Open-source
• VTK (The Visualization Toolkit)
• Commercial
• Amira
• AVS/Express
• IDL
• IRIS Explorer
• OpenDX

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–54

 Visualization tools – Non-spatial data

• Open-source
• D3
• Processing
• Prefuse
• Xgobi
• Commercial
• Tableau

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–55

 Goals of this lecture

At the end of this lecture you:

• can tell when visualization can/should be used.

• know a variety of techniques to visualize the most common data
types.
• can make educated choice on how to design a visualization.
• can use and create tools for computer-based visualization.
• have an idea on how to get started with the design novel
visualization solutions.

Data Visualization – Introduction 1–56