What we talk about when we talk about beautiful data visualizations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Brinch
Keyword(s):  
Data Visualization ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Visualization Design ◽  
Data Visualizations

‘Beautiful’ is an adjective often used in descriptions of well-designed data visualizations. How the concept is used, however, reveals that it is applied to characterize a variety of qualities. Going beyond mere descriptions, the use of the concept also lays bare a certain ambivalence among scholars and practitioners towards how beauty matters, and which means it serves in data visualization. Interrogating ‘beautiful’ as a characterizing word, combined with a study of cases of ‘best practice’ used as examples of beautiful visualizations in various discourses, this chapter presents an analysis of what is regarded as beautiful within the field of data visualization design. This, in turn, can inform the understanding of what beauty means in visualizing data, in the purpose of facilitating the viewer’s comprehension and engagement.

Data visualization in chronic neurological and mental health condition self-management: a systematic review of user perspectives (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Polhemus ◽  
Jan Novak ◽  
Shazmin Majid ◽  
Sara Simblett ◽  
Stuart Bruce ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Data Visualization ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Cochrane Library ◽  
Mental Health Conditions ◽  
Visualization Design ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Data Visualizations

BACKGROUND Remote measurement technology (RMT) such as mobile health devices and applications, are increasingly used by those living with chronic neurological and mental health conditions. RMT enables real-world data collection and regular feedback, providing users with insights about their own conditions. Data visualizations are an integral part of RMT, though little is known about visualization design preferences from the perspectives of those living with chronic conditions. OBJECTIVE Explore the experiences and preferences of individuals with chronic neurological and mental health conditions on data visualizations derived from RMT to manage health. METHODS In this systematic review, we searched peer-reviewed literature and conference proceedings (PubMed, IEEE Xplore, EMBASE, Web of Science, ACM Computer-Human Interface proceedings, and the Cochrane Library) for original articles published between January 2007 and February 2020 that reported perspectives on data visualization of people living with chronic neurological and mental health conditions. Two reviewers independently screened each abstract and full-text article, with disagreements resolved through discussion. Studies were critically appraised and extracted data underwent thematic synthesis. RESULTS We identified 28 eligible publications from 24 studies representing 11 conditions. Coded data coalesced into four themes: desire for data visualization, the impact of visualizations on condition management, visualizations as data reporting tools, and visualization design considerations. Data visualizations were viewed an integral part of users’ experiences with RMT, impacting satisfaction and engagement. However, user preferences were diverse and often conflicting, both between and within conditions. CONCLUSIONS When used effectively, data visualizations are valuable, engaging components of RMT. They can provide structure and insight, allowing individuals to manage their own health more effectively. However, visualizations are not “one-size-fits-all,” and it is important to engage with potential user during visualization design to understand when, how, and with whom the visualizations will be used to manage health.

scholarly journals A systematic method for surveying data visualizations and a resulting genomic epidemiology visualization typology: GEViT

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anamaria Crisan ◽  
Jennifer L. Gardy ◽  
Tamara Munzner
Keyword(s):  
Data Visualization ◽  
Design Space ◽  
Systematic Method ◽  
Genomic Epidemiology ◽  
Link Type ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Visualization Tools ◽  
Visualization Design ◽  
Scientific Research Articles ◽  
Data Visualizations

AbstractMotivation:Data visualization is an important tool for exploring and communicating findings from genomic and healthcare datasets. Yet, without a systematic way of organizing and describing the design space of data visualizations, researchers may not be aware of the breadth of possible visualization design choices or how to distinguish between good and bad options.Results:We have developed a method that systematically surveys data visualizations using the analysis of both text and images. Our method supports the construction of a visualization design space that is explorable along two axes: why the visualization was created and how it was constructed. We applied our method to a corpus of scientific research articles from infectious disease genomic epidemiology and derived a Genomic Epidemiology Visualization Typology (GEViT) that describes how visualizations were created from a series of chart types, combinations, and enhancements. We have also implemented an online gallery that allows others to explore our resulting design space of visualizations. Our results have important implications for visualization design and for researchers intending to develop or use data visualization tools. Finally, the method that we introduce is extensible to constructing visualizations design spaces across other research areas.Availability:Our browsable gallery is available at http://gevit.net and all project code can be found at https://github.com/amcrisan/gevitAnalysisRelease

scholarly journals Research on the Application of Data Visualization Design in CBA League News

2021 ◽  
Vol 236 ◽  
pp. 05078
Author(s):  
Yi Sui ◽  
Honghai Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Data Visualization ◽  
User Needs ◽  
Visual Data ◽  
Core Competitiveness ◽  
The Core ◽  
Visualization Design ◽  
Sports News ◽  
The Core Competitiveness ◽  
And Function

In the context of the era of intelligence, the capacity and function of data is expanding, and is playing an irreplaceable role in the field of sports news. This paper studies the data expression mode of sports news. From the point of user needs and the characteristics of visual data, this paper discusses the methods and suggestions of data visualization design in CBA league news, in an attempt to form an intuitive, efficient and convenient visual form of sports news, which can promote the multi-dimensional development of visual symbols in sports news, and promote the progress of data analysis and prediction. The data visualization has become the core competitiveness of sports news.

scholarly journals Data Visualization + Scrollytelling for Election News Stories : Challenges and Perspectives

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Philippe Corbeil ◽  
Florent Daudens ◽  
Thomas Hurtut
Keyword(s):  
Data Visualization ◽  
French Language ◽  
Daily Newspaper ◽  
Canadian French ◽  
News Stories ◽  
The Past ◽  
Narrative Format ◽  
Election News ◽  
Data Visualizations

This visual case study is conducted by Le Devoir, a Canadian french-language independent daily newspaper gathering around 50 journalists and one million readers every week. During the past twelve months, in collaboration with Polytechnique Montreal, we investigated a scrollytelling format strongly relying on combined series of data visualizations. This visual case study will specifically present one of the news stories we published, which communicates electoral results the day after the last Quebec general election. It gathers all the lessons that we learnt from this experience, the challenges that we tackled and the perspectives for the future. Beyond the specific electoral context of this work, these conclusions might be useful for any practitioner willing to communicate data visualization based stories, using a scrollytelling narrative format.

The political significance of data visualization: Four key perspectives

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torgeir Uberg Nærland
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Data Visualization ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Public Deliberation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Progressive Change ◽  
The Status ◽  
Data Visualizations

Practitioners and scholars alike assume that data visualization can have political significance—as vehicle for progressive change, manipulation, or maintaining the status quo. There are, however, a variety of ways in which we can think of data visualization as politically significant. These perspectives imply differing notions of both ‘politics’ and ‘significance’. Drawing upon political and social theory, this chapter identifies and outlines four key perspectives: data visualization and 1) public deliberation, 2) ideology, 3) citizenship, and 4) as a political-administrative steering tool. The aim of this chapter is thus to provide a framework that helps clarify the various contexts, processes, and capacities through which data visualizations attain political significance.

scholarly journals Data visualization literacy: Definitions, conceptual frameworks, exercises, and assessments

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (6) ◽  
pp. 1857-1864 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katy Börner ◽  
Andreas Bueckle ◽  
Michael Ginda
Keyword(s):  
Data Visualization ◽  
Procedural Knowledge ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Mathematical Literacy ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Assessment Measures ◽  
Data Visualizations ◽  
Write Text

In the information age, the ability to read and construct data visualizations becomes as important as the ability to read and write text. However, while standard definitions and theoretical frameworks to teach and assess textual, mathematical, and visual literacy exist, current data visualization literacy (DVL) definitions and frameworks are not comprehensive enough to guide the design of DVL teaching and assessment. This paper introduces a data visualization literacy framework (DVL-FW) that was specifically developed to define, teach, and assess DVL. The holistic DVL-FW promotes both the reading and construction of data visualizations, a pairing analogous to that of both reading and writing in textual literacy and understanding and applying in mathematical literacy. Specifically, the DVL-FW defines a hierarchical typology of core concepts and details the process steps that are required to extract insights from data. Advancing the state of the art, the DVL-FW interlinks theoretical and procedural knowledge and showcases how both can be combined to design curricula and assessment measures for DVL. Earlier versions of the DVL-FW have been used to teach DVL to more than 8,500 residential and online students, and results from this effort have helped revise and validate the DVL-FW presented here.

scholarly journals Aesthetics and Clarity in Information Visualization: The Designer’s Perspective

Arts ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Annemarie Quispel ◽  
Alfons Maes ◽  
Joost Schilperoord
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Data Visualization ◽  
Information Visualization ◽  
Information Design ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Good Design ◽  
The Public ◽  
Objective Information ◽  
Data Visualizations ◽  
Important Design

Designers are increasingly involved in creating ‘popular’ data visualizations in mass media. Scientists in the field of information visualization propose collaborations between designers and scientists in popular data visualization. They assume that designers put more emphasis on aesthetics than on clarity in their representation of data, and that they aim to convey subjective, rather than objective, information. We investigated designers’ criteria for good design for a broad audience by interviewing professional designers and by reviewing information design handbooks. Additionally, we investigated what might make a visualization aesthetically pleasing (attractive) in the view of the designers. Results show that, according to the information designers, clarity and aesthetics are the main criteria, with clarity being the most important. They aim to objectively inform the public, rather than conveying personal opinions. Furthermore, although aesthetics is considered important, design literature hardly addresses the characteristics of aesthetics, and designers find it hard to define what makes a visualization attractive. The few statements found point at interesting directions for future research.

scholarly journals Dynamic Data Visualizations to Enhance Insight and Communication Across the Lifecycle of a Scientific Project

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Wiebels ◽  
David Moreau
Keyword(s):  
Data Visualization ◽  
Web Applications ◽  
Scientific Communication ◽  
R Language ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Scientific Project ◽  
Active Exploration ◽  
Data Visualizations

In scientific communication, figures are typically rendered as static displays. This often prevents active exploration of the underlying data, for example to gauge the influence of particular data points or of particular analytic choices. Yet modern data visualization tools, from animated plots to interactive notebooks and reactive web applications, allow psychologists to share and present their findings in dynamic and transparent ways. In this tutorial, we present a number of recent developments to build interactivity and animations into scientific communication and publications, using examples and illustrations in the R language. In particular, we discuss when and how to build dynamic figures, with step-by-step reproducible code that can easily be extended to the reader’s own projects. We illustrate how interactivity and animations can facilitate insight and communication across a project lifecycle—from initial exchanges and discussions within a team to peer-review and final publication—and provide a number of recommendations to use dynamic visualizations effectively. We close with a reflection on how the scientific publishing model is currently evolving, and consider the challenges and opportunities this shift might bring along for data visualization.

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