A Short Introduction on Data

Visualization
Guoning Chen
 Data is generated
everywhere and everyday
Age of Big Data
Data in ever increasing sizes ⇒ need an effective way to
understand them
 History of Visualization
• Visualization = rather old L. da Vinci (1452-1519)

• Often an intuitive step: graphical illustration

Image source: http://www.leonardo-da-vinci-biography.com/leonardo-da-
vinci-anatomy.html
 What is Visualization?
• In 1987
– the National Science Foundation (of the U.S.) started “Visualization in
scientific computing” as a new discipline, and a panel of the ACM
coined the term “scientific visualization”
– Scientific visualization, briefly defined: The use of computer graphics
for the analysis and presentation of computed or measured scientific
data.
• Oxford Engl. Dict., 1989
– to form a mental vision, image, or picture of (something not visible or
present to the sight, or of an abstraction); to make visible to the mind
or imagination

• Visualization transforms data into images that effectively and

accurately represent information about the data.
– Schroeder et al. The Visualization Toolkit, 2nd ed. 1998

Tool to enable a User insight into Data

Large scale systems and events

Source: NASA

Turning invisible into visible that

people can understand intuitively

The impact of the ball entering

8
the porous solid from the left
 What Does Visualization Do?
• Three types of goals for visualization
– … to explore
• Nothing is known,
• Vis. used for data exploration
– … to analyze
• There are hypotheses,
• Vis. used for Verification or Falsification
– … to present
• “everything” known about the data,
• Vis. used for Communication of Results

Image source: Google images

This is a well rich and inter-disciplinary area that combines
knowledge from various disciplines
 A Visualization Pipeline

Data acquisition Data are generated/collected.

Data are processed.

Data enhancement

Data are mapped to visual

Visualization mapping primitives, e.g. colors,
geometry, etc.

Rendering (ND->2D) Images are generated.

This pipeline represents only the lecturer’s opinion and need not reflect the opinions of NSF or UH!
 Data Visual Analytic Pipeline
Data acquisition Data are generated/collected.

Data are pre-processed.

Data pre-processing

Feature detection
Structure extraction
Analysis
Statistical analysis
etc.
Data are mapped to visual
Visualization mapping primitives, e.g. colors,
geometry, etc.

Rendering (ND->2D) Images are generated.

This pipeline represents only the lecturer’s opinion and need not reflect the opinions of NSF or UH!
 Evolution of Visualization Research
• From direct visualization to derived information
visualization.

• From simple data to more complex ones.

• From represent the data with fidelity to reveal new

findings.

• From scientific visualization to information

visualization, bio-visualization, geographical data
visualization, and beyond.
 SciVis vs. InfoVis
• Scientific visualization is mostly concerned with:
– Data defined in physical space, i.e. spatio-temporal data (2~4 dimensions)
– Data describes continuous events in continuous space, however, the
representation is discrete (i.e. sampled data)
– Examples include simulation and measurement data from physics, chemistry,
geo-science, medical-biological, climate, oceanography, energy, ……
– Features are well-defined

• Information visualization focuses on:

– high-dimensional (>>4), abstract data (i.e. tree, graphs,…)
– Data is discrete in the nature
– Examples include financial, marketing, HR, statistical, social media, political,
…...
Scalar
– Feature are not well-defined, the typical analysis tasks including finding
Vector-valued
patterns, clusters, voids, outliers Tensor

(Bruno Jobard, Gordon Erlebacher, and M. Yousuff Hussaini)

 SciVis vs. InfoVis
• Scientific visualization is mostly concerned with:
– Data defined in physical space, i.e. spatio-temporal data (2~4 dimensions)
Hierarchy
– Data describes continuous events in continuous space, however, the
Graph
representation is discrete (i.e. sampled data) Unstructured
– Examples include simulation and measurement data from physics, chemistry,
geo-science, medical-biological, climate, oceanography, energy, ……
– Features are well-defined

Tree Text
• Information visualization focuses on:
– high-dimensional (>>4), abstract data (i.e. tree, graphs, hierarchy, …)
– Data is discrete in the nature
– Examples include financial, marketing, HR, statistical, social media, political,
…...
– Feature are not well-defined, the typical analysis tasks including finding
patterns, clusters, voids, outliers
Use Colors Wisely
What is Wrong with this Color Scale
 Not a bad choice of color scale,
but the Dynamic Range needs some work
 Use the Right Transfer Function Color Scale
to Represent a Range of Scalar Values
• Gray scale
• Intensity Interpolation
• Saturation interpolation
• Two-color interpolation
• Rainbow scale
• Heated object interpolation
• Blue-White-Red
Low High

Given any 2 colors, make it intuitively obvious which

represents “higher” and which represents “lower”
Do Not Attempt to Fight Pre-Established
Color Meanings
Examples of Pre-Established Color Meanings

Red Green Blue

Stop On Cool
Off Plants Safe
Dangerous Carbon Deep
Hot Moving Nitrogen
High stress Money
Oxygen
Shallow
Money loss
Use good contrast as human eye is good
at difference
Color Alone Doesn’t Cut It
Luminance Contrast is Crucial
The Luminance Equation

. . .

Material from Dr. Mike Bailey, Oregon State Univ.

 ≈ Contrast Table

ΔL* of about 0.40 are highlighted and recommended

Use good contrast

ΔL* of about 0.40 makes good contrast

Material from Dr. Mike Bailey, Oregon State Univ.
Be Aware of the Different Color Ranges
on Different Devices
Color Gamut for a Monitor and Color Slides
 Other Rules…

• Limit the total number of colors if viewers are to discern information

quickly.

• Be aware that our perception of color changes with: 1) surrounding

color; 2) how close two objects are; 3) how long you have been
staring at the color; 4)sudden changes in the color intensity.

• Beware of Mach Banding.

• Be Aware of Color Vision Deficiencies (CVD)

It is not possible to list all the useful rules. They come with a lot of experience!
 Beware of Color Pollution

Just because you have millions of colors to

choose from
 Some Principles for Plots
Visualizing Data [Cleveland 93] and Elements of Graphing Data
[Cleveland 94] by William S. Cleveland

The information provided here should be considered as guidelines

• Why are they all different?
• What is good/bad about each?
 Improving the Vision
• Principle 1: Reduced clutter, Make data stand out
– The main focus of a plot should be on the data itself, any
superflous elements of the plot that might obscure or
distract the observer from the data needs to be removed.

Which one is better?

 Improving the Vision
• Principle 2: Use visually prominent graphical elements to show the data.
– Connecting lines should never obscure points and points should not obscure
each other.
– If multiple samples overlap, a representation should be chosen for the
elements that emphasizes the overlap.
– If multiple data sets are represented in the same plot (superposed data), they
must be visually separable.
– If this is not possible due to the data itself, the data can be separated into
adjacent plots that share an axis
 Improving the Vision
• Principle 3: Use proper scale lines and a data rectangle.
– Two scale lines should be used on each axis (left and right, top and
bottom) to frame to data rectangle completely.
– Add margins for data
– Tick-marks outs and 3-10 for each axis
 Improving the Vision
• Principle 4: Reference lines, labels, notes, and keys.
– Only use them when necessary and don’t let them obscure data.
 Improving the Vision
• Principle 4: Reference lines, labels, notes, and keys.
– Only use them when necessary and don’t let them obscure data.
 Improving the Vision
• Principle 5: Superposed data set
– Symbols should be separable and data sets should be
easily visually assembled.
 Improving the Understanding
• Principle 1: Provide explanations and draw conclusions
– A graphical representation is often the means in which a hypothesis is
confirmed or results are communicated.
– Describe everything, draw attention to major features, describe
conclusions
 Improving the Understanding
• Principle 2: Use all available space.
– Fill the data rectangle, only use zero if you need it
 Improving the Understanding
• Principle 3: Align juxtaposed plots
– Make sure scales match and graphs are aligned
 Improving the Understanding
• Principle 4: Use log scales when appropriate
– Used to show percentage change, multiplicative factors and skewness
 Improving the Understanding
• Principle 5: Bank to 45
– Optimize the aspect ratio of the plot
 Summary of Principles
• Improve vision
1. Reduced clutter, Make data stand out
2. Use visually prominent graphical elements
3. Use proper scale lines and a data rectangle
4. Reference lines, labels, notes, and keys
5. Superposed data set

• Improve understanding
1. Provide explanations and draw conclusions
2. Use all available space
3. Align juxtaposed plots
4. Use log scales when appropriate
5. Bank to 45
Data we are discussing

Source: VIS, University of Stuttgart

Scientific data 3D+time (n<4) Scalar/vector/tensor

Information data nD (n>3) Heterogeneous