Line charts can be used (with caution) even when the X axis is neither interval or continuous.

In this snack, we look at “value over time” graphs in two different iPhone apps. It’s a good opportunity to connect design and task with a comparative critique.

I believe that critique is a valuable skill for both practicing and learning Visualization (see Tutorial 4: Critique). The book Discussing Design is a great resource to learn it.

Critique is the practice of examining something carefully to understand it and learn, often in a “discussion” format. Critique is a key tool in learning about Vis, and in improving design (for Vis, and in general). It is also a generally useful skill that can be learned with practice.

If you need to pick a book to get started, I recommend Alberto Cairo’s the The Truthful Art.

A surprising amount of visualization design and analysis can be wrapped up in the single question “What does this visualization make easy to see?”

This is the closest thing to a “primary textbook” for my class. The course shares a similar philosophy to the book, and we’ll read almost all of the chapters. The UW library has electronic copies, so students do not need to buy it.

Alberto Cairo is a designer and journalist who has become a visualization educator. He has written some excellent books on visualization. I use excerpts from his books “The Functional Art” and “The Truthful Art” in my class.

Jacques Bertin was a French cartographer who had lots of ideas about visualization, before there was a field of visualization. Many of the ideas we use in visualization today can be seen in his work, although reading these “original sources” can be challenging.

This is a thin little book (I know several people who read it in one sitting) that discusses the psychology of visual perception and its relationship to visualization and design. It’s not very deep, but it’s a great place to get started in appreciating how understanding how we see can help us be better designers.

Edward Tufte’s books are probably the most famous (or infamous) books on visualization. They are more art history books, full of historical examples and commentary, than books to help you understand or design visualizations. However, they are very influential, and everyone in the field (and many people outside of the field) talks about them. We look at parts of them for class.

Students often ask for resources on Graphic Design. I’ll suggest two books that have been readings in class in the past (and might be this year if we do the Graphic Design module): “The Non-Designer’s Design Book” and “Design for Hackers: Reverse Engineering Beauty.”

I will use a simple example (a data table) to show how the basic concepts of visualization can be applied. This is mainly to illustrate the “4 design moves” introduced in Tutorial 1: What Is Visualization and How do We Do It?

This gives you a sense of my thoughts on what Visualization is, and how we best go about creating them. By defining visualization in a clear and operational manner, we can better organize our thinking about what it means to do visualization well (which is our goal), how we should go about doing it, and what we need to learn to do it.