Debate about Data Visualization

[Alark Joshi]

Hello DataViz Enthusiasts,

Lately, there has been an interesting conversation online about the
use of certain visualization techniques and their appropriateness etc.

In one such conversation, Robert Kosara of EagerEyes.org justified the
use of 3D Heatmaps in his blog post

http://eagereyes.org/criticism/above-all-do-no-harm

Moritz Stefaner posted a rebuttal to this post with an interesting title:

On the role of bacon in visualization -
http://well-formed-data.net/archives/669/on-the-role-of-bacon-in-visualization

Both of them are interesting reads and I look forward to hearing what
you have to say about the visualization and their thoughts.

****************************************************

REMINDER: Our next meeting is on Thursday at 6pm. I have reserved a
conference room for the meeting. It is MEC 301. Please make sure to be
on time, so we can enjoy the snacks before we get started. If anyone
needs help with parking, please email me separately at
alark...@boisestate.edu.

****************************************************

See you on Thursday!!

Regards,

Alark Joshi

Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Boise State University
1910 University Drive, MEC 302A
Boise, ID 83725-2075
phone: (208) 426-5734
web: http://cs.boisestate.edu/~alark

[Wade Dorrell]

The 3D effect in the chart is probably as inoffensive as 3D can be, but it's incomplete without including the labels. Moritz points this out. How the labeling is handled could make or break 'redundant encoding'... the redundancy has to be handled in the labels somehow, and I think that isn't easy here. It takes 1.5 sentences in the blog and still the colors aren't actually explained, the vision accessibility issues aren't handled...

 

Moritz' redesign works the labels in, it looks to be accessible, and it all still seems less complex than the unlabeled 3D version.

 

More interesting than either might be a path showing where the player ran, with the width of the line chosen so that density shows frequency.

 

Wade

> From: alark...@boisestate.edu
> Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2011 10:51:08 -0600
> Subject: Debate about Data Visualization
> To: boise-...@googlegroups.com

[Wade Dorrell]

The 3D effect in the chart is probably as inoffensive as 3D can be,
but it's incomplete without including the labels. Moritz points this
out. How the labeling is handled could make or break 'redundant

encoding'... the redundancy has to be handled by the labels somehow,

and I think that isn't easy here. It takes 1.5 sentences in the blog
and still the colors aren't actually explained, the vision
accessibility issues aren't handled...

Moritz' redesign works the labels in, it looks to be accessible, and
it all still seems less complex than the unlabeled 3D version.

More interesting than either might be a path showing where the player
ran, with the width of the line chosen so that density shows
frequency.

Wade

On Aug 29, 10:51 am, Alark Joshi <alarkjo...@boisestate.edu> wrote:
> Hello DataViz Enthusiasts,
>
> Lately, there has been an interesting conversation online about the
> use of certain visualization techniques and their appropriateness etc.
>
> In one such conversation, Robert Kosara of EagerEyes.org justified the
> use of 3D Heatmaps in his blog post
>
> http://eagereyes.org/criticism/above-all-do-no-harm
>
> Moritz Stefaner posted a rebuttal to this post with an interesting title:
>

> On the role of bacon in visualization -http://well-formed-data.net/archives/669/on-the-role-of-bacon-in-visu...

>
> Both of them are interesting reads and I look forward to hearing what
> you have to say about the visualization and their thoughts.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> REMINDER: Our next meeting is on Thursday at 6pm. I have reserved a
> conference room for the meeting. It is MEC 301. Please make sure to be
> on time, so we can enjoy the snacks before we get started. If anyone
> needs help with parking, please email me separately at

> alarkjo...@boisestate.edu.