Fundamentals of Data Visualisation & Information Design Using information design and data visualisation to effectively communicate project ideas and results Introduction to Data Visualization & Information Design. Data Visualization is the representation of data or information in a graph, chart, or any other visual format. It communicates the relationship of data using images. It enables one to see trends and patterns easily. Information Design is the practice of presenting information in a way that makes it most accessible and easily understood by users.This targets specific audiences by organizing and simplifying information in ways they can quickly grasp. Data Visualization Vs Information Design Vs Data Visualization Information Design Raw data that has not been Data used as a storytelling Purpose designed with a purpose. tool. It’s data with a purpose. Permits the viewer to make Informs the viewers about a Viewer their own conclusions. data set and it’s specific parts. Data organized in a way that Data presented in a snackable Design inspired a distinctive reaction. design. Can be ever-evolving with Conclusions have already Conclusion new data added regularly. been made for the data. Data Visualization Data visualization is raw data visualized in a way that permits the viewer to make their own conclusions. It has the ability to always evolve with new data and information being updated regularly. It provides analysis and is open to viewers having personal conclusions derived from specific points in time and can be organised in ways that inspire a distinctive reaction. A data visualisation displays measured quantities by use of points, lines, shapes, letters and digits all quantified by visual attributes; General Context free Automatically generated Information Design Information design is data used as a storytelling tool. Information design is more about informing the viewer about a data set and its specific parts. It has conclusions derived already and is simply being presented in a consumable design. Information design goes hand-in -hand with user experience design. The information must be presented in a clear, concise manner to aid users navigation through it without confusing or overwhelming them. Information design is a visual representation of information, data and knowledge often used to support information, strengthen it and present kit with a sensitive context; Specific Context sensitive Often Hand crafted Common Misconceptions Of course, there are common misconceptions about information design and its similarity to data visualization. The line between the two, while it exists, is pretty blurry. The tricky part is here; Infographics are technically a type of information visualisation but they can also include a data visualisation in them. A data visualisation can look like an infographic in terms of design parameters. Analytics dashboards are data visualisation, but good looking reports are considered information. The apparent confusion is a common but acceptable err as there’s a term that encompasses both information design and data visualisation - Information Visualization. Main Difference - Information design tells a story or answer whereas Data visualisation makes users find their own story or answer. Main Relationship - Both can be static, animated and interactive. Why Data Visualization & Information Design Explaining, Exploring and Analyzing. Visuals describe situations, answer questions, support decisions, and communicate information. Data and Information is much more valuable when visualized. Charts and graphs make communicating data findings easier. Without information design, life would be boring. It’s as simple as that. Imagine this; Maps without color-coding or legends. Infographics wouldn’t exist. All websites would be the same. Textbooks would be plain and hard to follow. Bored yet? We rely so much on it, that we don’t usually stop to think about how important it is. At this point you might be wondering, are all graphic designers information designers? Well, that’s a tricky question. Most graphic designers study information design but don’t necessarily apply it to their work. You could technically say that all graphic design is information design because they are working with information and putting it together in a design. The thing is, information design is more about a data set with a purpose. A packaging label, for example, has information but it’s not a collected set of data that tells a story. Information design is more about using collected data that helps users understand something better or more efficiently. Furthermore, as the term “Information Design” is used more and more, it’s becoming widely incorporated in all design fields. Many universities offer courses, career paths, and Ph.D.’s in this discipline. You’ll be witness to more conversations around information design as the design thinking and user experience community expands into all design fields. This is an exciting time for data and information. There’s so much around us that the possibilities of how to use it are endless. Data Storytelling & some favorite visualizations Data storytelling is the process of creating a narrative out of data analysis findings, allowing laymen to understand the possibility of complex insights so as to make informed decisions or actions. Case 1 This visual from Afrobarometer made via infographic shows polls from citizens on who they think is the most corrupt in Tunisia from the year 2018. Case 2 John Snow and his use of small bar charts to mark the number of cholera deaths at each household in a London neighborhood. It was a massive revelation as to the cause of cholera! The data viz revealed a root cause problem and inspired a solution! The dark bars show the number of cases. Once they shut off that pump there, the number of cholera cases plummeted. Thus, alerting them to the fact that cholera was likely water-borne disease. Case 3 “I Agree”, a student project by Dima Yarovinsky. Most of us don’t read the terms and conditions before we click on “I agree” for the web services we use. They’re too long, and we need likes right away. For a student project, Dima Yarovinsky printed the terms and conditions on paper for major social apps — WhatsApp, Google, Tinder, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, respectively — which highlights what we’re getting into. Case 4 Another one that shows Disney movie screenplay dialogue broken down by Gender. You can see the dismal gender balance. Case 5 Interesting graphic on the top 15 best global brands ranking between 2000 - 2018. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQovQUga0VE&feature=youtu.be Case 6 This racing bar chart shows a visual timeline of the coronavirus diseases by country from December 2020 until March 2020 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plddyiCw_AM Data Visualization Types Line Chart Bar Chart This reveals trends, progress, or changes This is one of the most common visualization that occur over time, best works for tools, they are a simple, time-honored way continuous datasets. to show the comparison among different data sets. 50 1000 40 800 600 30 400 20 200 10 2 4 6 6 10 0 Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 Area Chart Bubble Chart Based on a line chart, area chart Just like a scatter plot, a bubble chart also represents graphically quantitative data. shows relationships or distribution. 1000 2.5 800 2.0 600 1.5 400 1.0 200 0.5 0.0 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 2 4 6 8 10 Pie Chart Heat Map Chart This best represents static numbers, divided This is a specialized chart that uses colors into categories that make its individual to represent data values in a table. Most portions. Summing up separate portions useful when plotting large and complex should add up to 100%. data. 25% A B C D 9 8 35% 5% 7 6 5% 5 4 30% 3 2 1 Word Cloud Scatter Plot This gives prominence to words appearing The position of each dot on the horizontal in the source text. You can tweak your and vertical axis indicates values for an words with different color schemes, fonts, individual data point. These are used to and layouts observe relationships between variables. 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 0 1 2 3 4 5 Data Visualization Tools It allows users to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, and other visual content. Web-based allows users to create and share digital charts, infographics, and maps. Comes with pre-loaded templates for making interactive map visualizations. Produces semi-finished visualizations that you can improve in your graphics editor. User friendly & compatible with all browsers & platforms, allows users to create a wide range of visualizations from line graphs, bar graphs to complex visuals. Data Visualization Process Overview Understand the data set that you have, explore the various existing relationships to get a snapshot of the visuals that could come out. In our case, we explored the relationship between malaria cases and months of the year, another could be recoveries and deaths over months. Zoom & Filter Zoom in and out of the data, and pick out interesting subsets that data that speaks to the cause you want to reflect. In our case, we picked the number of cases and the month of the year. Details on demand Concentrate on a narrow data subset that is mostly needed in your situation and represent that. Viewers may demand to know how many recoveries happened each month. Information Design Types Curated Information Curated information that follows a storyline. For example; infographics, recipe books. Museums and galleries have curators to select and interpret data about items for collection and display. Content curation is the process of gathering information relevant to a particular topic or area of interest, usually with the intention of adding value select, organize, and look after the items in a collection or exhibition.