VU 

188.305 – VO: 2 hrs. / 3 ECTS

Information Visualization
Introduction

Silvia Miksch 
silvia.miksch@tuwien.ac.at 
https://www.cvast.tuwien.ac.at/team/silvia‐miksch

Institute of Visual Computing and 
Human‐Centered Technology
Goal of this Lecture
Learn about
Basic Concepts & Terminology 
Visualization vs. Automatic Analysis
Visualization Reference Model

188.917 – VU Informationsdesign und Visualisierung 2
Content
Motivation
External Cognition
Example: Bad Design & Re‐Design
Definitions
Interactivity
Knowledge Crystallization
InfoVis vs. automatic analysis
Modeling the visualization process
Additional Material 

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 MOTIVATION

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Information overload [Howson, 2008]

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Goal

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Why Visualization?
1 599 693 26 541 558 51 318 527 76 196 467 101 246 606
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7 469 553 32 321 579 57 230 423 82 243 606 107 321 489
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13 250 660 38 246 493 63 542 531 88 318 489 113 230 527
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19 134 508 44 541 558 69 318 527 94 230 467 119 253 423
20 94 493 45 542 531 70 321 489 95 196 482 120 246 467
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23 128 482 48 469 693 73 253 508 98 243 482
24 183 473 49 409 660 74 246 493 99 250 473
25 163 568 50 321 579 75 230 423 100 253 568

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Car Example – Raw Data

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Car Example – Visual Representation

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Car Example - Interactivity

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HDD full – where are the big files/directories?

Tjark Derlien, Disk Inventory X, 2005. http://www.derlien.com/

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»The power of the unaided mind is highly overrated. Without
external aids, memory, thought, and remoning are all 
constrained. But human intelligence is highly flexible and
adaptive, superb at inventing procedures and objects that
overcome its own limits. The real powers come from devising
external aids that enhance cognitive abilities. How have we
increased memory, thought, and reasoning? By the
invention of external aids: It is things that make us smart.« 

Norman, 1993, p. 43

EXTERNAL COGNITION

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External Cognition

34 120
100
x 72

Time to Multiply (sec)

80

68 60
40
2
2380 20

2448
1
0
Mental Paper & Pencil

[Card et al., 1999]

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»Diagrams can lead to great insight, 
but also to the lack of it.« 

Tufte, 1997

THE DARK SIDE - BAD DESIGN AND RE-DESIGN

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The Challenger Disaster

January 27, 1986: 
US‐Space Shuttle Challenger
explodes 72 seconds after launch

Reasons: 
Sealing‐rings in the right booster 
were damaged due to weather 
conditions

Reliability‐problems of 
the so‐called O‐rings were known

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Challenger Disaster
The manufacturer 
of the boosters 
warned NASA 
before launch that 
the expected cold 
temperatures might 
be an extra risk.

NASA did not see 
any correlation 
between the failing 
of O‐Rings and the 
temperatures.

This was wrong!

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Challenger Disaster: Tufte‘s Re-Visualization
Edward R. Tufte showed that the risk would have been obvious to NASA engineers if 
a better visualization would have been used

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 DEFINITIONS

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A Brief History of Data Visualization
[Few, 2006]
[McCormick, DeFanti, Brown,
Visualization in Scientific
Computing, Computer
Graphics 21(6):1-14,1987]

[Johnson et al., NIH-NSF Visualization Research

Challenges Report, IEEE
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VO Informationsvisualisierung 
Visualization [Card et al., 1999]

"The use of computer‐supported, interactive, 
visual representations of data to amplify cognition.“
Cognition is the acquisition or use of knowledge.

“The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.” [Hamming, 1962]
"The purpose of visualization is insight, not pictures." 

Main goals:
discovery
decision making
explanation

Origins
Visualization dates as an organized subfield from the NSF report, 
Visualization in Scientific Computing (McCormick and DeFanti, 1987).
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Some Definitions of Visualization
“The use of computer graphics to create visual images 
which aid in understanding of complex, often massive 
numerical representation of scientific concepts or results."
[McCormick, et al. 1987]

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 Begin ::: Excursus

Visualization Analysis & Design

Tamara Munzner
Department of Computer Science
University of British Columbia

D3 Unconference Keynote
November 21 2015, San Francisco CA

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~tmm/talks.html#vad15d3

@tamaramunzner

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Defining visualization (vis)
Computer-based visualization systems provide visual representations of datasets
designed to help people carry out tasks more effectively.

Why?...
Why have a human in the loop?
Computer-based visualization systems provide visual representations of datasets
designed to help people carry out tasks more effectively.
Visualization is suitable when there is a need to augment human capabilities
rather than replace people with computational decision-making methods.

don’t need vis when fully automatic solution exists and is trusted 
many analysis problems ill‐specified
don’t know exactly what questions to ask in advance
possibilities
long‐term use for end users (e.g., exploratory analysis of scientific data)
presentation of known results 
stepping stone to better understanding of requirements before developing models
help developers of automatic solution refine/debug, determine parameters
help end users of automatic solutions verify, build trust
Why use an external representation?
Computer-based visualization systems provide visual representations of datasets
designed to help people carry out tasks more effectively.

external representation: replace cognition with perception

[Cerebral: Visualizing Multiple Experimental Conditions on

a Graph with Biological Context. Barsky, Munzner, Gardy,
and Kincaid. IEEE TVCG (Proc. InfoVis) 14(6):1253-1260,
2008.]
Why represent all the data?
Computer-based visualization systems provide visual representations of datasets
designed to help people carry out tasks more effectively.

summaries lose information, details matter 
confirm expected and find unexpected patterns more 
details later 
assess validity of statistical model

Anscombe’s Quartet
Identical statistics
x mean 9
x variance 10
y mean 8
y variance 4
x/y correlation 1
Analysis framework: 4 levels, 3 questions
domain
domain situation abstraction

who are the target users? idiom
algorithm
abstraction
[A Nested Model of Visualization Design and Validation.
translate from specifics of domain to vocabulary of vis Munzner. IEEE TVCG 15(6):921-928, 2009 (Proc. InfoVis 2009). ]
what is shown? data abstraction
domain
often don’t just draw what you’re given: transform to new form abstraction
why is the user looking at it? task abstraction
idiom idiom
how is it shown? algorithm
visual encoding idiom: how to draw
interaction idiom: how to manipulate
[A Multi-Level Typology of Abstract Visualization Tasks
algorithm Brehmer and Munzner. IEEE TVCG 19(12):2376-2385, 2013 (Proc. InfoVis 2013). ]

efficient computation
Why is validation difficult?
different ways to get it wrong at each level

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Nested Mode … [Munzner 2009]
… for visualization design and validation

threats and
validation in the
nested model

29
Types: Datasets and Data
Action I: Analyze
consume
discover vs present
classic split
aka explore vs explain
enjoy
newcomer
aka casual, social 

produce
annotate, record
derive
crucial design choice

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Actions II & III: Search & Query

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Target

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How I:

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How II: 3 Strategies plus ... + 1 previous

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 End ::: Excursus

Visualization Analysis & Design

Tamara Munzner
Department of Computer Science
University of British Columbia

D3 Unconference Keynote
November 21 2015, San Francisco CA

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~tmm/talks.html#vad15d3

@tamaramunzner

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From data to wisdom

[Shedroff, 1994; Mazza, 2009]

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Definitions ...
[Schreiber, et al., 1999]

Data
“input signals to sensory and cognitive processes”

Information
“data with an associated meaning”

Knowledge
“the whole body of data and information together with cognitive 
machinery that people are able to exploit to decide how to act, to 
carry out tasks and to create new information”

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Method

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Human Vision

high bandwidth 
fast, parallel 
pattern recognition 
pre‐attentive 
increases cognitive resources 
expand human working memory 

“The eye... the window of the soul, 
is the principal means 
by which the central sense 
can most completely and abundantly
appreciate the infinite works of nature.” [Few, 2006]

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) 
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Why visualization?
Increasing cognitive resources
such as by using a visual resource to expand human working memory
Reducing search
such as by representing a large amount of data in a small space
Enhancing the recognition of patterns
such as when information is organized in space by its time relationships
Supporting the easy perceptual inference of relationships
that are otherwise more difficult to induce
Perceptual monitoring of a large number of potential events

Providing a manipulable medium
that, unlike static diagrams, enables the exploration of a space of parameter values

[Card et al., 1999]

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Related fields

Scientific Visualization
objects or concepts associated with phenomena from the physical world
Volume Visualization 
Flow Visualization 
Rendering 
Information Design
more graphic design community based (infographics)
focus on presentation of facts
interactivity less important
usually less amounts of data

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Purpose/Goals ::: Visualization
Presentation (Communication)
interactivity
Starting point: facts to be presented are fixed a priori
Process: choice of appropriate presentation techniques
Result: high‐quality visualization of the data to present facts
Confirmatory Analysis
Starting point: hypotheses about the data
Process: goal‐oriented examination of the hypotheses
Result: visualization of data to confirm or reject the hypotheses
Exploratory Analysis
Starting point: no hypotheses about the data
Process: interactive, usually undirected search for structures, trends
Result: visualization of data to lead to hypotheses about the data
„Interaction between human and computer is at the heart of
modern information visualization and for a single
overriding reason: the enormous benefit that can accrue
from being able to change one's view of a corpus of
data. Usually that corpus is so large that no single all‐
inclusive view is likely to lead to insight. Those who wish to
acquire insight must explore, interactively, subsets of that
corpus to find their way towards the view that triggers an 'a 
ha!' experience.“

[Spence, 2007]

INTERACTIVITY

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Interactivity

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 EXAMPLES

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Cave paintings (ca. 28000 BC)

[Wikimedia commons]
58
Hieroglyphics (5000-3000 BC)

[Wikimedia commons]
59
Minard - Napoleon‘s Russian Campaign (1812)

[Charles Joseph Minard, 1812]
188.917 – 2VU Informationsdesign und Visualisierung 60
Florence Nightingale – Rose chart (1855)

[Nightingale, 1858]
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Cycle Plot
[Cleveland, Dunn, and Terpenning, 1978]; [Robbins, 2008]

Data Set
Sales of a hypothetical company by the
day-of-the-week over an eight week period
3 Visualizations
1) Line Chart – day-of-the-week
2) Line Chart – over eight weeks
3) Cycle Plot

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Cycle Plot
[Cleveland, Dunn, and Terpenning, 1978]; [Robbins, 2008]

Data Set
Sales of a hypothetical company by the
day-of-the-week over an eight week period
3 Visualizations
1) Line Chart – day-of-the-week
2) Line Chart – over eight weeks
3) Cycle Plot

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Cycle Plot
[Cleveland, Dunn, and Terpenning, 1978]; [Robbins, 2008]

Data Set
Sales of a hypothetical company by the
day-of-the-week over an eight week period
3 Visualizations
1) Line Chart – day-of-the-week
2) Line Chart – over eight weeks
3) Cycle Plot

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Cycle Plot
[Cleveland, Dunn, and Terpenning, 1978]; [Robbins, 2008]

Benefits 
(compared to Line Chart)

Sales/Changes each data 
more visible
Mo / We: increase
Tu: decrease
Other days: less variable 
and fluctuated around their 
means

Repeating 
Time‐oriented Pattern 
Detection

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 Dynamic HomeFinder

[Williamson and Shneiderman, 1992]

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 Cluster and Calendar-Based Visualization

[Van Wijk, J. J. and Van Selow, E. R.,1999]

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www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/31/business/20080801-metrics-graphic.html
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/01/02/business/20110102-metrics-graphic.html
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/newsgraphics/2011/0119-budget/
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/02/us/politics/20100201-budget-
porcupine-graphic.html

10.10.2011 188.917 – 2VU Informationsdesign und  73

Visualisierung
 Dissertation Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg
http://de.guttenplag.wikia.com/wiki/GuttenPlag_Wiki

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Dissertation Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg

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 Video: 7:47

http://www.visualisingdata.com/2013/05/video-the-art-of-data-visualization/

76
 “Acquire information. 
Make sense of it. 
Create something new. 
Act on it.
[Card, 2008, p. 540]

KNOWLEDGE CRYSTALLIZATION

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 Knowledge Crystallization Loop [Card, et al. 1999]

Overview
Sub‐tasks
Zoom Task
Filter
Forage Create, Extract
Details Decide, Compose
Browse for Data
Search query
or Act Present

Reorder
Cluster
Search for Problem‐ Create
Class Schema Solve Delete
Average Manipulate
Promote Instantiated Read fact
Detect pattern Schema Read pattern
Abstract Read compare

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 [Thomas &
Cook 2005]

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INFOVIS VS. AUTOMATIC ANALYSIS

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Motivation: An Information Gap
[Card, et al. 1999]

SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS

Somewhere in the data there is valuable 
information.

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One Approach: Visualization
[Card, et al. 1999]

SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS

Tap the Power of Human Perception
Complex View of the Data
Interactive Controls to Explore Data and See Patterns

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Competing Approach: Automatic Analysis
[Card, et al. 1999]

SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS $
SSSSSSSS
SSSSSSSS

Tap the Power of the Computer
Complex Statistical Analysis
Simple Report

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Statistics
[Fekete et al., The Value of Information Visualization, 2008]

well grounded field

descriptive statistics 
classical statistics / confirmatory statistics 
designing a model of the data 
mathematical analysis to test whether the model is refuted or not by the data 
main challenge: find a model 
Bayesian statistics 
Exploratory Data Analysis 
analysis using visual methods to acquire insights about what the data looks 
like, usually to find a model 
uses visual exploration methods to get the insights 

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Anscombe's Quartet

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anscombe's_quartet;
Anscombe, 1973]
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Anscombe's Quartet

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anscombe's_quartet;
Anscombe, 1973]
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Anscombe's Quartet

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anscombe's_quartet;
Anscombe, 1973]
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Same Stats, Different Graphs

x͞ =54.26
y͞ = 47.83
sdx = 16.76
sdy = 26.93
Pearson’s Correlation 
r = ‐0.06 

[Matejka and Fitzmaurice, 2017]
Same Stats, Different Graphs: Datasaurus

[Matejka and Fitzmaurice, 2017]
Same Stats, Different Graphs: Datasaurus

[Matejka and Fitzmaurice, 2017]
 Data Mining
[Fekete et al., The Value of Information Visualization, 2008]

Goal: automatically find interesting facts in the data
Hertzsprung Russel Diagram

X‐axis : 
temperature of 
stars and the

Y‐axis: their 
magnitude.

by humans 
no automatic analysis method has been able to find 
the same summarization: noise and artifacts  188.305 – VO Informationsvisualisierung  91
Visual vs. Automatic Methods
competition?
‐‐> combination
‐‐> Visual Analytics

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MODELING THE VISUALIZATION PROCESS

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Visualization Design
. [Miksch & Aigner 2014]

data

InfoVis /
Visual Analytics
methods
goal/task appropriateness user/audience
Miksch, S., and W. Aigner, "A Matter of Time: Applying a Data-Users-Tasks Design Triangle to Visual
Analytics of Time-Oriented Data", Computers & Graphics, vol. 38, issue C, pp. 286-290, 2014.
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Which Information to Tackle ...
Data Patient Data
Guidelines
*
**

+
+

Users

Tasks to do
to do
1. ..........................
1. ..........................
to do
2. ..........................
2. ..........................
1. ..........................
3. ................
3. ................
2. ..........................
3. ................
Data
cmp. [Shneiderman, 1996]

Variables – Data Type ‐
Scale of measurement Structure
nominal univariate
ordinal multivariate
quantitative hierarchy / tree
discrete
graph / network
continuous
time‐oriented
(binary)
text/document

(2D map)
(3D world)

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Data: Example
presentation [Mackinlay, 2000]

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Data: Example
presentation [Mackinlay, 2000]

Nominal Ordinal Quantitative

FilmID 230 105 540 …

Title Goldfinger Ben Hur Ben Hur …
Director Hamilton Wyler Niblo …
Actor Connery Heston Novarro …
Actress Blackman Harareet McAvoy …
Year 1964 1959 1926 …
Length 112 212 133 …
Popularity 7.7 8.2 7.4 …
Rating PG G G …
Film Type Action Action Drama …
Data type / structure: multivariate

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Tasks
[Shneiderman, 1996]

1 overview gain an overview of the entire set of data

2 zoom adjust the size of items of interest

3 filter remove uninteresting items

4 details‐on‐demand select one or more items and get details

5 relate identify relationships between items

6 history keep a history of actions to support undo/redo

7 extract extract subsets of items for separate analysis

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Visual Information Seeking Mantra
[Shneiderman, 1996]

overview first, zoom and filter, then details‐on‐demand
overview first, zoom and filter, then details‐on‐demand
overview first, zoom and filter, then details‐on‐demand
overview first, zoom and filter, then details‐on‐demand
overview first, zoom and filter, then details‐on‐demand
overview first, zoom and filter, then details‐on‐demand

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InfoVis Reference Model
[Card et al., 1999]

User interaction can feed back into any level

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Visualization Models

[Wang et al., 2009]

[van Wijk, 2005]

[Sacha et al., 2014; Ribarsky

[Sacha
& Fisher,
et al., 2014]
2016]

[Pirolli & Card, 2005]

[Ceneda et al, 2017]

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 BOOKS

188.305 – VO Informationsvisualisierung  103

Eduard Tufte

1983 / 2001 1990 1997 2006

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Jacques Bertin

Semiology of Graphics,  Graphics and Graphic 
University of Wisconsin Press,  Information Processing,
1983 Walter de Gruyter & Co,
1981

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Stephen Few

Show Me the Numbers:  Information Dashboard  Now You See It: Simple 

Designing Tables and Design: The Effective Visualization Techniques
Graphs to Enlighten,  Visual Communication  for Quantitative Analysis, 
Analytics Press, 2004  of Data, O'Reilly Media,  Analytics Press,  2009
2006 

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Robert L. Harris

Information Graphics: A 
Comprehensive 
Illustrated Reference

Oxford University Press, 
2000

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Stuart Card, Jock Mackinlay, Ben Shneiderman (Eds.)

Readings in Information 
Visualization ‐ Using 
Vision to Think

Morgan Kaufmann, 
1999

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Robert Spence

Information Visualization ‐
Design for Interaction 
(2nd Edition)

Pearson Education, 
2007

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Colin Ware
Information Visualization ‐ Visual Thinking for Design
Perception for Design 
Morgan Kaufmann,  Morgan Kaufman/Elsevier, 
2013 (3rd Edition) 2008

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Kerren, A., Ebert, A. and Meyer J. (Eds.)

Human‐centered Visualization 
Environments

Volume 4417 of LNCS Tutorial, 
Springer, 
2007

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Riccardo Mazza

Introduction to Information 
Visualization

Springer, 
2009

http://www.springerlink.com/content/978‐
1‐84800‐218‐0

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Matthew Ward, Georges Grinstein, Daniel Keim

Interactive Data Visualization

A.K. Peters LTD, 
2015

http://www.idvbook.com/

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Steele, J. and Iliinsky, N. (Eds.)

Beautiful Visualization

O'Reilly, 
2010

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Tamara Munzner

Visualization Analysis 
and Design

A K Peters/CRC Press 
December 1, 2014

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 NEW BOOK
Wolfgang Aigner • Silvia Miksch
Heidrun Schumann • Christian Tominski
Visualization of
Time-Oriented Data
with a foreword by Ben Shneiderman
Springer
1st Edition., 2011, XVIII, 286 p. 221 illus., 198 in color.
Hardcover, ISBN 978-0-85729-078-6.

Table of Contents
Introduction • Historical Background •
Time & Time-Oriented Data • Visualization Aspects •
Interaction Support • Analytical Support •
Survey of Visualization Techniques • Conclusion

www.timeviz.net
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Some Web Resources
InfoVis:Wiki (http://www.infovis‐wiki.net)

Visual Analytics Digital Library 
(http://vadl.cc.gatech.edu/) 

EagerEyes.org (http://eagereyes.org/)

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Commercial Software ::: Some Examples

Tableau

Spotfire

MagnaView

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Summary: InfoVis...
...  is a very complex task
...  can help to get insight into data more quickly
...  requires preparation and sensible handling of the 
information
...  should make use of the properties of 
human visual perception
...  requires sensible handling, relative to 
the task
...  is a big challenge, if you want to do it good

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Acknowledgements
Many thanks to
Wolfgang Aigner
Georges Grinstein
Jock D. Mackinlay
Tamara Munzner

whose work and slides are the basis of this presentation
Visualization Design
. [Miksch & Aiigner 2014]

data

InfoVis /
Visual Analytics
methods
goal/task appropriateness user/audience

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Expressiveness
A visualization is considered to be expressive if the 
relevant information of a dataset (and only this) is 
expressed by the visualization. The term "relevant" 
implies that expressiveness of a visualization can 
only be assessed regarding a particular user working 
with the visual representation to achieve certain 
goals.

„A visualization is said to be expressive if and only if
it encodes all the data relations intended and no 
other data relations.“  [Card, 2008, p. 523]

[Mackinlay, 1986]
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Effectiveness
A visualization is effective if it 
addresses the capabilities of the
human visual system. Since 
perception, and hence the mental 
image of a visual representation, 
varies among users, effectiveness is 
user‐dependent. Nonetheless, some 
general rules for effective visualization 
have been established in the 
visualization community.
„Effectiveness criteria identify which of 
these graphical languages [that are 
expressive], in a given situation, is the 
most effective at exploiting the 
capabilities of the output medium and 
the human visual system.“ [Mackinlay, 
1986]

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Appropriateness
[Schumann and Müller, 2000]

Appropriateness regards the tradeoff between efforts required for creating the visual
representation and the benefits yielded by it. If this tradeoff is balanced, the
visualization is considered to be appropriate.
Model of Van Wijk:
n users use visualization V to visualize a data set m times each where each session takes k exploratory steps and
time T
Ci ... Initial development costs
Cu ... Initial costs per user (e.g., selection, acquisition, learning, tailoring)
Cs ... Initial costs per session (e.g., data conversion, specification)
Ce ... Perception and exploration costs (e.g., spend time to view and understand, modify, and tune)
W(∆K) ... Value of acquired knowledge ∆K = K(T) ‐ K(0)
Total costs:
C = Ci + n*Cu + n*m*Cs + n*m*k*Ce
Overall profit:
F = n*m*(W(∆K) ‐ Cs ‐ k*Ce) ‐ Ci ‐ n*Cu

[Van Wijk, 2006]

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