# Fundamentals of Information Visualisation

###### How to make use of data?

- How do we avoid being overwhelmed?
- How do we make sense of the data?
- How do we harness this data in decision-making process?

###### Objective

- Transform the data into information (understanding & insight)

##### What is Information Visualisation

> - “… finding the artificial memory that best supports our natural means of perception.” - Bertin 1967
> - “The use of computer -generated, interactive, visual representations opf data to amplify cognition” - Card, Mackinlay & Shneiderman 1999

### Anscombe’s Quartet

![1645029722.png](img/1645029722.png)

Here we can see that statistically these sets are similar

![1645029788.png](img/1645029788.png)

However graphing them, we can see that these data sets are very different.

#### Common Information Visualisations

- Pie charts
  - Very common, easy to understand, visually appealing
  - Can make comparisons harder with many segments
- Bar chart
  - Makes comparisons between bars easier
- Calendar View
  - https://observablehq.com/@d3/calendar
  - Can spot long-term trends - e.g. seasonal, annual trends

###### Wikipedia Edit Evolution

![img](img/a.png)

Note the use of colour and shape.