Data Visualisation

Module 3 Week 8
INFOSYS 110 Digital Systems
Module 3:
Digital Systems for Competitiveness
Week 07 Week 08 Week 09
Business Analytics Data Visualisation Project Management Tools
Learning outcomes:
By the end of this session you should be able to:
• Define what a data visualisation is
• Articulate why we use data visualisations
• Apply Tufte’s 3 primary principles
Agenda:

An introduction to Data Visualisation

Design Principles

Visualisation Critiques

4
An introduction to Data Visualisation

Design Principles

Visualisation Critiques

5
200 Countries, 200 Years

Source:
What is Data Visualisation?

The representation and

presentation of data that
exploits our visual perception
abilities in order to amplify
cognition.

Andy Kirk in Data Visualization: A Successful

Design Process (2012)
What is a Data Visualisation?

Visual representations of
datasets designed to help
people carry out tasks more
effectively.

Tamara, Munzner in A Nested Model for Visualization Design

and Validation (2009)
Reasons for creating data
visualisations
Almagest
Claudius Ptolemy
150 CE
Map of Paris
1575

13
Map of Paris
2021

14
William Playfair

1786

15
John Snow

1854

16
Edward Tufte

17
Source:
Why don’t we just use numbers?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anscombe%2
Anscombes Quartet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anscombe%2
Pre-attentive Processing: How many times does the digit 7
appear?
# of times digit 7 appears: 17
# of times digit 7 appears: 17
Reasons for creating data
visualisations

Record
Explore data
information

Prove Communicate
hypotheses ideas
 Views on Visualisation
Tech perspective Technology
aim for provable
effectiveness and
efficiency Art

Science perspective: Visualization Real World

aim for generic laws
with predictive
power

Art perspective Science

aim for elegance and
beauty

Source: van Wijk (2005)

The ability to take data – to be able to understand it, to process it, to
extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate it’s going to be
a hugely important skill in the next decades…

I do think those skills – of being able to access, understand, and

communicate the insights you get from data analysis – are going to
be extremely important. Managers need to be able to access and
understand the data themselves.
Hal Varian, The McKinsey Quarterly, January 2009
An introduction to Data Visualisation

Design Principles

Visualisation Critiques
“There is no such thing as information
overload. There is only bad design.”
-Edward Tufte

Source: Tufte (2001)

Tufte’s Design Principles
Visualisations should be about the data
1. The visualisation should tell a story
2. The visualisation should have
integrity
3. The visualisation should minimise
graphical complexity

Source: Tufte (2001)

The visualisation should tell a story

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*XgorQDwG09D2tHXpFhAr9A.jpeg
The visualisation should tell a story

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolemartin1/2018/11/01/data-visualization-how-to-tell-a-story-with-data/#272173e44368
https://public.tableau.com/profile/ashley.pinto#!/vizhome/WhatAreImmigrantsDoinginMyCountry/Dashboard1?publish=yes
The visualisation should have
integrity

http://www.statschat.org.nz/2014/05/05/weight-gain-lie-factor/
https://morethanmyheight.com/2018/04/10/global-perspective-of-female-height/
 The visualisation should minimise
graphical complexity
Average sale price
AVERAGE SALE PRICE $2,000,000

$1,800,000 $1,800,000

$1,600,000 $1,600,000

$1,400,000 $1,400,000

$1,200,000
$1,200,000

$1,000,000
$1,000,000
$800,000
$800,000
$600,000
$600,000
$400,000
$400,000
$200,000
$200,000
$0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
$0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Data from: https://www.barfoot.co.nz/market-reports/2017/january/suburb-report

Cognitive load
• The amount of information a human is trying to
process in working memory at any given time
• Goal is to reduce this!
• No more than 5-9 elements on a chart
"Simple design, intense content."
An introduction to Data Visualisation

Design Principles

Visualisation Critiques

41
A few tips
• What jumps out at you?
• Colour
• Shape
• Chart type

• What is the message that the author is trying to

convey?
• Did it immediately jump out or did it take a while?
• Why?
http://www.pginvestor.com/Cache/1001216941.PDF?O=PDF&T=&Y=&D=&FID=1001216941&iid=4004124
Click here
Click here
And now for something a little bananas

https://medium.com/tdebeus/redesign-of-a-truly-bananas-chart-1617f930808d
 https://medium.com/tdebeus/redesign-of-a-truly-bananas-chart-1617f930808d
https://medium.com/tdebeus/redesign-of-a-truly-bananas-chart-1617f930808d
What’s next:

Week 07 Week 08 Week 09

Business Analytics Data Visualisation Project Management Tools