Visualization

What is the importance of good visualization tools (graphs, charts, figures)?

1. Present knowledge faster than text
2. Makes knowledge more memorable and easier to understand
3. dentifies new patterns previously hidden
4. Allows for disseminating new knowledge
5. Assist in determining or communicating cause and effect
6. Assists in decision making, which "requires cause and effect thinking" (Tufte)

List characteristics of good visualization tools

1. Place data in context for cause and effect
2. Make quantitative comparisons between things
3. Assess possible errors in the numbers reported
4. Identifies outliers or contrary cases
5. Chart junk is removed
6. Chart must convening knowledge without explanatory text
7. Legends and axis are defined
8. Titles describe the subject of the chart and the main take-away point
9. Time and geographic-sensitive data are presented in multiple ways to prevent aggregation errors
10. New patterns or new knowledge can be divined from the visualization tool.