Data Visualisation & Storytelling

Disclaimer

• The data visualization presented in the slides does not indicate support for or
opposition against any political party, company, media or product.

• The visualizations are for informational purposes only and should not be
considered as endorsement or criticism of any political party, company etc.
Which do you remember
from your
Archimedes Principle
School Days ???
OR

Thirsty Crow
 Data Visualization
conveys information through images,
while
Data Storytelling
creates a narrative with the Data.
Lets Start By Looking At Few
Historical Viz
 John Snow

Father Of Modern Epidemiology

 FRENCH INVASION OF RUSSIA
Charles Joseph Minard
6 Variables : Size of the army, two dimensional location (latitude and longitude),
direction of movement of army, temperature during retreat , various dates of retreat
 Creative
Expression
 Verbal Memory(Left) Visual Memory(Right)

“The mind never thinks without an image.” — Aristotle

Understanding the difference between Visual vs. Verbal memories, Ten Touch
https://ameritest.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/visual-and-verbal-memories/
 Data Visualization

Representation of data through use of common graphics

such as charts, plots, infographics and even animations.
Goals of Data Visualization
Explore Explain Express
 Continuum Of
Understanding
• Proposed by Nathan Shedroff

• A process that theorizes how people

understand and learn from data.

• One way to propel the continuum of

understanding is by using the tools and
methodologies specific to information
visualization.

• When designing information visualization,

designers process and sort data and
present it in a context that enables the
audience to glean insights.

Source : Imperial College London

 Continuum Of
Understanding
• Proposed by Nathan Shedroff

• A process that theorizes how people

understand and learn from data.

• One way to propel the continuum of

understanding is by using the tools and
methodologies specific to information
visualization.

• When designing information visualization,

designers process and sort data and
present it in a context that enables the
audience to glean insights.

Source : Imperial College London

 The Science
behind
Data Visualization
How Do we SEE ???
How Do We See ?

➢Human Visual System

➢Perception
➢Visual Hierarchy
➢Visual Elements
➢Attention
➢Making Connections
➢Conventions
 Human Visual System

Is our Visual System like Camera ?

How Do We See ?

➢Human Visual System

➢Perception
➢Visual Hierarchy
➢Visual Elements
➢Attention
➢Making Connections
➢Conventions
 Sensation Vs Perception
Sensation Perception
• The detection of physical The process by which the brain
energy emitted or reflected organizes and interprets
by objects sensory information

The brain The brain makes

receives input sense out of the
from the input from
sensory organs. sensory organs.
Our Brain Determines What We See
 Influences on Perception
• Our Perception can be effected by:
• Culture
• Our Need
• Our beliefs
• Emotions such as happiness etc.
• Previous Experiences
Illusions

Distortion
Of
Perception
 Visual Illusions
Visual percept that appears to differ from reality.

Mario Ponzo (1991) suggested that the human

mind judges an object's size based on its background.
 Perceptual Set
What you see in the centre depends on the order in
which you look at
 Context Effects

• Interpretation can
depend on context
 Courtesy of Patrick Cavanagh
Fix your gaze on the black dot on the left side of this image. As you gaze at the left dot, try to answer this question:
In what direction is the object on the right moving? Is it drifting diagonally, or is it moving up and down?
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/20978285/optical-illusion-science-humility-reality-polarization
 To Build Great
Visualizations,
you have to understand
Visual Cognition
and
Perception
 To Build Great
Visualizations,
you have to understand
Visual Cognition
and
Perception
 Encoding and Decoding Visualization
Encoding Decoding

Data Wisdom

Data
Mapping Cognition
Data Viz

Visual
Mapping Perception
Now Let Us See How We Decode Graphs
Area=1 Area=?

Volume=1 Volume=?
 Graphical Perceptual Tasks

Basic Perceptual Judgements that we perform to visually

decode quantitative information encoded in the graph.
1 2 3 4 5 6

Graphical Perception: Theory, Experimentation, and Application to the Development of Graphical Methods, William S. Cleveland and Robert McGill
Identify the Perceptual Tasks and their Rank

Position along common scale, Rank #1

https://stats.libretexts.org/
 Position along common scale, Rank #1
Area, Rank #4 Length, Rank #3 , Common scale, Rank #1
Color ??? Color ????

Identify the Perceptual Tasks and their

Rank

Length, Rank #3 , Non-Aligned scale, Rank #2

Source:Datavizcatalogue.com, learnui.design, https://www.twinkl.co.in/teaching-wiki/bar-chart
Saturation,#6
Area , Rank #4 length , Rank #3 Length, Rank #3
Angle, Rank #3 Position in common scale, Rank #1 Position in common scale, Rank 1
Direction, Rank #3
Length , 3 length , 3 Length,3
Non Aligned Scale, 2 Common scale, 1 Common scale,1
How Do We See?

➢Human Visual System

➢Perception
➢Visual Hierarchy
➢Visual Elements
➢Attention
➢Making Connections
➢Conventions
How Do We See?

➢Human Visual System

➢Perception
➢Visual Hierarchy
➢Visual Elements
➢Attention
➢Making Connections
➢Conventions
 Visual hierarchy is the principle of
arranging elements to show their
order of importance.

Influence users’
perceptions and
guide them to
desired actions
How Do We See?

➢Human Visual System

➢Perception There Is No
➢Visual Hierarchy Predetermined Order
➢Visual Elements
➢Attention
--
➢Making Connections You Simply Go Where
➢Conventions Your Eyes Take You.
How Do We See?
Building blocks to create
Visualization
➢Human Visual System
➢Perception
➢Visual Hierarchy
➢Visual Elements
➢Attention
➢Making Connections
➢Conventions
Color
 Color
Temperature
 Color Temperature

• Intense colors • Soothing colors

• Evoke feeling of energy and • Relaxing and connect
connect emotionally with emotionally with trust
warmth • Can be dull, so balance with
• User can feel anxious and warm colors for user to stay
drained if used in excess interested
• Appear closer to the user • Appear farther from the user
 Color Temperature
Neutral colors
• Includes black, white, gray, tans, and browns.

• They’re commonly combined with brighter

accent colors but they can also be used on
their own in designs.
Components of Color
Categorical
or
Qualitative
Palette
Sequential
Palette
Diverging
Palette
 Normal Vision
Color Blindness
• 300 million people in the world with CVD
• 1 in 12 men are color blind.
• 1 in 200 women are color blind .
• Ten percent of men are colorblind and
mostly red/green issues

• Few Tips:
• If possible, don’t use Red & Green
together leverage Light and Dark

• Use a colorblind-friendly palette when

appropriate

• Online resources like ColorBrewer and viz

tools can help create and select an
accessible color palette.
 Color
Best Practices
Avoid using too many Colors
Be consistent with Colors
Maintain a Theme
Be aware of Brand Colors and Theme
Identify Visual Elements Mapped

Position
Color
Size
Size
How Do We See ?

➢Human Visual System

➢Perception
➢Visual Hierarchy
➢Visual Elements
➢Attention
➢Making Connections
➢Conventions
How Do We See ?

➢Human Visual System

➢Perception
➢Visual Hierarchy
➢Visual Elements
➢Attention
➢Making Connections
➢Conventions
How Do We See ?

➢Human Visual System

➢Perception
➢Visual Hierarchy
➢Visual Elements
➢Attention
➢Making Connections
➢Conventions
How Do We See ?

➢Human Visual System

➢Perception
➢Visual Hierarchy
➢Visual Elements
➢Attention
➢Making Connections
➢Conventions
How Do We See ?

➢Human Visual System

➢Perception
➢Visual Hierarchy
➢Visual Elements
➢Attention
➢Making Connections
➢Conventions
How Do We See ?

➢Human Visual System

➢Perception
➢Visual Hierarchy
➢Visual Elements
➢Attention
➢Making Connections
➢Conventions
How Do We See ?

➢Human Visual System

➢Perception
➢Visual Hierarchy
➢Visual Elements
➢Attention
➢Making Connections
➢Conventions
Avoid Going Against
Conventions
 Anscombes-Quartet

Francis Anscombe
 Summarize this
data.

These 13 datasets (the Datasaurus, plus 12

others) each have the same summary statistics
(x/y mean, x/y standard deviation, and Pearson's
correlation) to two decimal places, while being
drastically different in appearance.
Datasaurus Dozen
Always Visualize and Explore your data
before moving on to Analytics.
 Disclaimer

Few of the graphs and visualizations used in the presentation are not my own and have been taken from various
sources like: Google Images, the Economist, William S. Cleveland and Robert McGill 1984, Data-To-Viz, Oracle,
Datavizcatalogue, blogs.sas.com,steema.com, consumer reports, visualdisplay of quantitative information by E.Tufte,
python graph gallery and lucidchart, Storytelling with data, cole nussbaumer knaflic, The Functional Truth; Alberto
Cairo etc.