What is Visualization?

the use of computer-supported interactive visual representations of data to amplify cognition
Not - not simply the process of making a graphic or an image, the goal is to create insight, not pretty pictures
we want to help ppl form a mental image of something and internalize their own understanding
we want to promote discovery, decision making and explanations
we want to find and utilize cognitive and perceptual principles
we want to optimize our visualizations and our interactions with the visualization according to those principles
Why is it helpful?
- amplifies cognition
- expands working memory
- reduces search time
- improves pattern detection and recognition
- controls attention
1 - analysis - understand your data better and act upon that understanding
2 - given a data set, compare, contrast, assess, evaluate
3 - solve a problem!
4 - presentation - communicate and inform others more effectively
5 - visualization is most useful in exploratory data analysis

Intro to Data Exploration

how can we make sense of real world data we collect
"sense" making.. what does it mean?
1st sense: from latin "sentire" or "to perceive" - any of the faculties, as sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch, by which humans and animals perceive stimuli originating from outside the body
2nd sense: to attain awareness or understanding of... - awareness implies vigilance in observing or alertness in drawing inferences from what one experiences; understanding is the power to make experience intelligible by applying concepts and categories
Did you notice the gap? there is a gap btwn the first meaning (feel, measurement) and the second (awareness, understanding)
data processing - user knows what she wants; user has a function/procedure/workflow to compute what she wants
querying - user knows what she wants; user can describe what she wants
navigation - user knows what he wants; user doesn't know how to describe/locate what they want
exploration - user does not precisely know what they want; user wants to get an idea about the available data
exploratory search - acquiring new knowledge and revealing new facts; analysis, comparison, aggregation, transformation, visualization