MARKS &

CHANNELS

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How can I visually represent two
numbers

e.g., 4 and 8

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MARKS & CHANNELS
Marks: represent items or links

Channels: change appearance based on attribute

Channel = visual variable

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MARKS FOR ITEMS
Basic geometric elements

0D 1D 2D

3D mark: Volume, but rarely used

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MARKS FOR LINKS

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NESTED CONTAINMENT

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CHANNELS
Change appearance proportional to or based on attributes

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JACQUES BERTIN
French cartographer
who makes or draws maps
Theoretical principles for visual encodings

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 BERTIN’S VISUAL VARIABLES
Marks: Points Lines Areas
Variables of image

Position

Size

(gray)Value
Variable to distinguish images
Texture

Color

Orientation

Shape

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Semiology of Graphics [J. Bertin, 67]
USING MARKS AND CHANNELS

Mark: Line Mark: Point Adding Hue Adding Size

Channel: Channel: Position +1 categorical +1 quantitative

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REDUNDANT ENCODING

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GOOD BAR CHART?

Rule: Use channel proportional to data!

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https://twitter.com/ChaseThomason/status/1118478036507164672?s=19
TYPES OF CHANNELS
Magnitude channels Identity channels
How much? Which What?
rank? Shape
Position Color (hue)
Length Spatial region...
Saturation …

Ordinal & Categorical Data

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PRINCIPLES OF EXPRESSIVENESS
AND EFFECTIVENESS
Expressiveness principle
The visual encoding should express all of, and only, the information in
the dataset attributes

Effectiveness principle:
The importance of attribute should match the salience of the channel

Means:
- The most important attributes should be encoded with the most
effective channels in order to be most noticeable
- Then the following important attributes match with less effective
channels

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RANK OF CHANNELS

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WHAT VISUAL VARIABLES ARE USED?

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http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/25/sunday-review/corporate-taxes.html
CHARACTERISTICS OF CHANNELS
Selective
- Is a mark distinct from other marks?
- Can we make out the difference between two marks?
Associative
- Does it support grouping?
Quantitative (Magnitude vs identity channels)
- Can we quantify the difference between two marks?

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CHARACTERISTICS OF CHANNELS
Order (Magnitude vs Identity)
Can we see a change in order?

Length
How many unique marks can we make?

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POSITION
Strongest visual Selective: Yes
variables Associative: Yes
Suitable for all data Quantitative:Yes
types
Order: Yes
Problems:
Length: Fairly big
- Sometimes not
available (spatial (options)
data, map)
- Cluttering (many → Good channel
items overlapped)

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EXAMPLE: SCATTERPLOT

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POSITION IN 3D? NOT SO GOOD

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LENGTH & SIZE
Good for 1D, OK for 2D, Bad for 3D
Easy to see which one is bigger
Aligned bars use position redundantly
1D length:
Selective: yes
Associative: yes
Quantitative: yes
Order: yes
Length: yes

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EXAMPLE 2D SIZE: BUBBLES

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VALUE/LUMINANCE/SATURATION
OK for quantitative data when length & size are used
Not very many shades recognizable

Selective: yes
Associative: yes
Quantitative: somewhat
Order: yes
Length: limited (around 7 – 8)

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EXAMPLE: DIVERGING VALUE-SCALE

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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/election-2016-voting-precinct-maps.html#11.08/32.700/-97.197/115304
COLOR
Good for qualitative data (identity channel)
Limited number of classes/length (7-10)
Do not work for quantitative data
Lots of pitfalls !
Good practice: minimize use of color for encoding data

Selective: yes
Associative: yes
Quantitative: no
Order: no
Length: limited

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COLOR: BAD EXAMPLE

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COLOR: GOOD EXAMPLE

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SHAPE
Great to recognize many classes
No grouping, ordering

Selective: yes
Associative: limited
Quantitative: no
Order: no
Length: vast

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Idea: use facial parameters to map quantitative data

Does it work? Not really

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 MORE
CHANNELS

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https://en.rockcontent.com/blog/2012/07/27/45-
ways-to-communicate-two-quantities/
ACCURACY OF CHANNELS

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HOW MUCH LONGER?

2x

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HOW MUCH LONGER

4x

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HOW MUCH STEEPER?

~4x

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HOW MUCH LARGER?

2x
diameter
4x area

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HOW MUCH LARGER?

5x

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HOW MUCH LARGER (AREA)?

3x

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HOW MUCH DARKER?

2x

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HOW MUCH DARKER?

3x

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POSITION, LENGTH & ANGLE

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https://woodgears.ca/eyeball/index.html
OTHER FACTORS AFFECTING ACCURACY

Alignment
Distractors
Distance
Common scale

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RESEARCH BY CLEVELAND 1984

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 HEER & BOSTOCK, 2010

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https://www.mturk.com/worker
JOCK MACKINLAY, 1986

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[Mackinlay, Automating the Design of Graphical Presentations of
Relational Information, 1986]
SEPARABILITY OF ATTRIBUTES
Can we combine multiple visual variables?

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T. Munzner, Visualization Analysis and Design, 2014