Book Review:Design for Information

2 Book Review: Design for Information

Design for Information:An introduction to the histories, theories, and best practices behind effective information visualizations

Isabel MeirellesRockport Publishers, October 2013

Source: www.philsimon.comhttp://isabelmeirelles.com/book-design-for-information/

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Want to know what this mesmerizing chart is about? You’ll just have to pick up a copy of Design for Information to find out.

Hint: it uses data from Flicker.

Nice source for stylish visualization inspiration

4 Book Review: Design for Information

Data Visualization Skills

Q: Who is usually tasked with creating dataviz?

A: Designers and technical/scientific personnel

Creating a data visualization “requires both analytical and visual/spatial methods of reasoning.”

You can see how the ZingChart team used these methods in our Fantasy Football Dashboard explainer.

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Dataviz terms

“Infographics stand for visual displays in which graphics (illustrations, symbols, maps, diagrams, etc) together with verbal language communicate information that would not be possible otherwise.”

“Information design, on the other hand, is broadly used to describe communication design practices in which the main purpose is to inform, in contrast to persuasive approaches more commonly used in practices such as advertising.”

Basically, information design can cover a lot of ground, including systems and all types of visualizations.

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Examples from the expertsAlberto Cairo, New York Times graphics, Stamen Design, Mike Bostock, even Florence Nightingale and Harry Beck.

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Source: Metro.co.uk

Common types of network dataviz

See live chart at:http://www.zingchart.com/blog/2014/11/11/dataviz-book-review-design-information/

8 Book Review: Design for Information

Source: Metro.co.uk

Common types of network dataviz

See live chart at:http://www.zingchart.com/blog/2014/11/11/dataviz-book-review-design-information/

9 Book Review: Design for Information

Source: Metro.co.uk

Common types of network dataviz

See live chart at:http://www.zingchart.com/blog/2014/11/11/dataviz-book-review-design-information/

10 Book Review: Design for Information

Source: Metro.co.uk

Common types of network dataviz

See live chart at:http://www.zingchart.com/blog/2014/11/11/dataviz-book-review-design-information/

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Textual structuresWord clouds – set apart for strength in textual analysis

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Word cloud challenges

• No inherent ordering

• High dimensionality

• Information linked to text long words give the

impression of greater weight

• Color encoding can confuse

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Data types – Nominal Data

See more about these data types in our color selection dataviz blog post: http://www.zingchart.com/blog/2014/08/25/color-charts/

• Comprised of objects, names, and concepts

• Distinguished on the basis of quality

• No implicit quantitative relationship/ordering

• For dataviz, usually combined with ordinal or quantitative data

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Data types – Ordinal Data

See more about these data types in our color selection dataviz blog post: http://www.zingchart.com/blog/2014/08/25/color-charts/

• Arranged in an order or rank

• Does not provide degree of differences

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Data types – Quantitative Data

See more about these data types in our color selection dataviz blog post: http://www.zingchart.com/blog/2014/08/25/color-charts/

• Can be measured and statistically manipulated

• Can be transformed by classing

• Lends itself to meaningful grouping

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