Making Sense of Data III (ePub)

Focuses on insights, approaches, and techniques that are
essential to designing interactive graphics and visualizations

Making Sense of Data III: A Practical Guide to Designing
Interactive Data Visualizations explores a diverse range of
disciplines to explain how meaning from graphical representations
is extracted. Additionally, the book describes the best approach
for designing and implementing interactive graphics and
visualizations that play a central role in data exploration and
decision-support systems.

Beginning with an introduction to visual perception, Making
Sense of Data III features a brief history on the use of
visualization in data exploration and an outline of the design
process. Subsequent chapters explore the following key areas:

* Cognitive and Visual Systems describes how various drawings,
maps, and diagrams known as external representations are understood
and used to extend the mind's capabilities

* Graphics Representations introduces semiotic theory and
discusses the seminal work of cartographer Jacques Bertin and the
grammar of graphics as developed by Leland Wilkinson

* Designing Visual Interactions discusses the four stages of
design process--analysis, design, prototyping, and
evaluation--and covers the important principles and strategies
for designing visual interfaces, information visualizations, and
data graphics

* Hands-on: Creative Interactive Visualizations with Protovis
provides an in-depth explanation of the capabilities of the
Protovis toolkit and leads readers through the creation of a series
of visualizations and graphics

The final chapter includes step-by-step examples that illustrate
the implementation of the discussed methods, and a series of
exercises are provided to assist in learning the Protovis language.
A related website features the source code for the presented
software as well as examples and solutions for select
exercises.

Featuring research in psychology, vision science, statistics,
and interaction design, Making Sense of Data III is an
indispensable book for courses on data analysis and data mining at
the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. The book also serves
as a valuable reference for computational statisticians, software
engineers, researchers, and professionals of any discipline who
would like to understand how the mind processes graphical
representations.