Data visualization

A quick look

Alessandro Zerillo
What is it?

Data visualization is the representation of facts and figures in a graphical format.

It’s useful for making decisions (visualizing data instead of just analyzing them can
help you notice patterns/trends between the data.
A bit of history

An early example of data visualization was a flow map created by a French engineer
(Minard) in 1869 to help understand what went wrong with Napoleon’s troops during
the Russian campaign. The map shows: number of troops, locations, distance,
temperature.
Advantages

Quick and efficient analysis

More informed decisions
Things are easier to communicate
Grasping relationships between variables
Visualization of trends and patterns
Types of data visualization

Exploration: what the data is telling (meaning of data)

Explanation: tell a story using data
Possible graphics

2d area: geospatial visualization (maps)

Temporal: one dimensional visualization (time series)
Multidimensional: relations between two or more variables (diagrams)
Hierarchical: how groups relate to each other (tree diagrams)
Network: how things are interconnected (network diagrams)