Manuel Lima Visual Complexity Pdf Reader

1. Manuel Lima Visual Complexity Mapping Patterns Of Information
2. Manuel Lima Visual Complexity

Posted: November 26th, 2014 Author: Filed under: As some attentive users of Visual Complexity might have noticed, the number of projects featured on the website has slowly come to a halt, with the perpetual grand total of 777 being a grieving reminder of inactivity for well over a year. Today, If you go the the main page and look at the top right corner, you will see an invigorating new message: “ Indexing 782 projects”. Of course I didn’t want to write this blog post to announce that five new projects have been added to the database. This recent addition is part of a larger plan I’ve been wanting to share with you for some time.

In October 2015, Visual Complexity will celebrate its 10th Anniversary, a significant feat considering the life-span of many online projects, and an eerie memo that a long time has gone by since I launched the website after graduating from a MFA program at Parsons School of Design. In order to commemorate this event, I plan on reaching 1,000 projects by October next year. 1,000 projects in 10 years. As you can imagine, this is not an easy enterprise, so I’m relying immensely on, a researcher and student at Princeton University, to help me gather and document many new additions to Visual Complexity.

There might also be a small celebration, which I will announce closer to the date. But for now, be sure to watch for new projects being added to the website. If you want to contribute to this ongoing research, please use the “Suggest a Project” form on the homepage, in order to recommend a new network visualization. Posted: October 30th, 2014 Author: Filed under: has been out for six months and during this time it has received a great number of positive reviews from publications like Wired, New Scientist, Fast Company, Nature, Print Magazine, The Boston Globe, and many others.

The book keeps making its rounds on and there might be a few translations coming out next year. I recently realized I never wrote a post on the underlying structure of the book, so in case you’re curious, here it is. As exposed in the year, The Book of Trees covers over 800 years of human culture through the lens of the tree figure, from its entrenched roots in religious medieval exegesis to its contemporary, secular digital themes. With roughly 200 images, the book offers a visual evolutionary history of this universal metaphor, showing us the incremental adoption of a stylized, abstract construct, as well as a recent emergence of new visual models, many employing advanced computer-generated algorithms. The eleven chapters that compose the book feature a number of visual methods and techniques for the representation of hierarchical structures. The first (and longest) chapter features primeval tree diagrams, which bear a close resemblance to real trees and are, at times, significantly embellished.

The remaining ten chapters can be grouped into two sections. The first, comprising chapters two through six, covers the earliest forms of diagrammatic, abstract tree charts and includes different types of node-link diagrams, where given nodes, entities, or “leaves” are tied across different levels by links, edges, or “branches.” The second group, encompassing chapters seven through eleven, explores more modern and recently popular approaches, showcasing various types of space-filling techniques and adjacency diagrams that use polygonal areas and nesting to indicate different ranking levels. A shot of the Table of Contents by the blog The book also features a Timeline of Significant Characters: key people in the establishment of the tree metaphor in depicting almost every relevant aspect of knowledge throughout the centuries. Amongst the twelve characters listed are the names of Aristotle, Joachim of Fiore, Ramon Llull, Francis Bacon, Charles Darwin, and Ernst Haeckel. You can continue following updates on The Book of Trees on its official or its Facebook. Posted: October 22nd, 2014 Author: Filed under: During a sumptuous dinner last February in Shibuya, Tokyo, following a long visualization workshop, my welcoming hosts presented me with a gift: an exceptional book by Japanese researcher Minaka Nobuhiros, entitled. I was immediately hooked.

Published in the end of 2012, and including a few references to, is a well curated visual journey into the tree diagram and by far the closest book in scope to. This deduction is purely based on the association of images within the book, since unfortunately I’m not fluent in Japanese. Minaka has been an avid scholar of phylogenetic diagrams, biological classification, and evolutionary science, as you can attest from the sheer number of books and papers showcased in his.

When I first discovered his work, I was extremely joyful for having found such a kindred spirit. Today, I’m very excited to announce that Minaka will be translating The Book of Trees to Japanese, to be published by in 2015. I simply couldn’t hope for a more knowledgeable and qualified translator. Posted: February 19th, 2014 Author: Filed under: As many readers might have noticed, from my and, I’m slightly obsessed with medieval information design, and the remarkable work of many our visualization forefathers, such as Isidore of Seville (ca. 560–636), Lambert of Saint-Omer (ca.

1125), or Joachim of Fiore (ca. An important figure in this context was the German historian and cartographer Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514). In 1493, in the city of Nuremberg, Germany, Schedel published a remarkable, densely illustrated and technically advanced incunabulum (a book printed before 1501), entitled the. Also know as Liber Chronicarum (Book of Chronicles), this universal history of the world was compiled from older and contemporary sources, and comprised 1,809 woodcuts produced from 645 blocks. Some of the book’s maps were the first illustrations ever produced of many European cities and countries. There are many online versions of this work, but if you want to get a decent, well-bound copy of this beautiful book, Taschen has recently that I highly recommend.

You can read more about Taschen’s copy and. A few more online resources about the Nuremberg Chronicle: - -. Posted: January 28th, 2014 Author: Filed under: In the end of many of my talks, after going through a variety of compelling examples of network visualization, I wrap up with a bit of a quandary, asking the audience if there’s such a thing as a universal structure. This teaser usually comprises a between a mouse’s neuronal network and a simulation of the growth of cosmic structure and the formation of galaxies and quasars.

A common juxtaposition, shown during many of my lectures, between a neuronal network (left) and the vast cosmic structure (right). As it turns out, this inquiry might not be as far-fetched as we might think. A few days ago, National Geographic posted an intriguing article titled, where they report how scientists have for the first time captured a peek of the “ vast, web-like network of diffuse gas that links all of the galaxies in the cosmos.” As stated in the article: Leading cosmological theories suggest that galaxies are cocooned within gigantic, wispy filaments of gas. This “cosmic web” of gas-filled nebulas stretches between large, spacious voids that are tens of millions of light years wide. Like spiders, galaxies mostly appear to lie within the intersections of the long-sought webs.

From the original image caption in the article: Computer simulations suggest that matter in the universe is distributed in a “cosmic web” of filaments, as seen in the image above from a large-scale dark-matter simulation. The inset is a zoomed-in, high-resolution image of a smaller part of the cosmic web, 10 million light-years across, from a simulation that includes gas as well as dark matter. The intense radiation from a quasar can, like a flashlight, illuminate part of the surrounding cosmic web (highlighted in the image) and make a filament of gas glow, as was observed in the case of quasar UM287. Credit: Anatoly Klypin and Joel Primack, S. Cantalupo This find is not just impressive and thought-provoking, but it could also become a major focus of the emerging fields of and. Posted: January 8th, 2014 Author: Filed under: After many months of research, planning, and writing, I’m extremely happy to announce is now available for at Amazon (out by March 2014). While investigating various tree diagrams, charts, and illustrations for Chapter 1 of, I became deeply obsessed with tree iconography.

I remember being particularly enthralled with ancient figures from medieval Europe and three-thousand-year-old Assyrian stone carvings. During this research period, and despite my best efforts, I could never find a wide-ranging book dedicated to the tree as one of the most popular, captivating, and widespread visual archetypes. This was ultimately the crucial impetus that propelled me to create my latest work,. The final cover of The Book of Trees Trees are one of the most ubiquitous religious symbols across the world.

From ancient Sumer to Christianity, from the Maya civilization to Buddhism, there’s hardly a human society over the ages that hasn’t associated trees with some sort of celestial and religious power. The omnipresence of such a revered symbol reveals an inherently human fascination with trees that goes well beyond sacred devotion.

Due to its expressive quality and natural branching scheme, trees have also become important communication tools, illustrating a variety of topics such as family ties, moral values, systems of law, domains of science, biological species, hard disk drives, database schemas, and online discussions. As a direct embodiment of hierarchy and multiplicity, the allegorical tree figure has lasted hundreds of years as one of the most enduring archetypes in the history of visual communication. The Book of Trees covers over 800 years of human culture through the lens of the tree figure, from its entrenched roots in religious medieval exegesis to its contemporary, secular digital themes.

With roughly 200 images the book offers a visual evolutionary history of this universal metaphor, showing us the incremental adoption of a stylized, abstract construct, as well as a recent emergence of new visual models, many employing advanced computer-generated algorithms. Ultimately, this book makes visualization a prism through which to observe the evolution of civilization.

Now at Amazon and take advantage of the one-time special price. Posted: August 7th, 2013 Author: Filed under: In the Preface of my new book (more details to come soon) I mention the importance of an historical analysis of visualization, since it’s critical for us to understand its long evolution and not be overly infatuated by the work created in the last decade alone. In this context I provide a quote by Michael Friendly, who stated: “There certainly have been many new things in the world of visualization; but unless you know its history, everything might seem novel.” Figurative Trees The tree figure is perhaps one of the most enduring, widespread visual metaphor for mapping information. With deep roots in medieval visual exegesis and illuminated manuscripts, its alluring arboreal structure has been adopted by numerous scholars, researchers, designers, and illustrators over centuries to map an incredible array of knowledge domains. Here is a simple timeline showing four distinct executions (with year below) comprising roughly a 800-year span: Arc Diagrams But trees are not the only visual model being used for centuries.

In 2001, Martin Wattenberg introduced a novel way of visualizing a song as a sequence of translucent arcs with varying width. The method showcased in is better described by Wattenberg himself: “Each arch connects two repeated, identical passages of a composition. By using repeated passages as signposts, the diagram illustrates the deep structure of the composition.” The project website shows a striking of images that give shape to various songs by artists such as Bach, Madonna, and Philip Glass. This interesting technique became known as Arc Diagrams and was immediately followed by numerous projects, many of which I’ve been documenting over the years in. Here are just some of the many visualizations embracing this approach: However, this method is not entirely new. In fact, arc diagrams have been used for over a thousand years and were particularly popular in middle-age Europe in the depiction of, guess what, musical compositions.

Many of these intricate diagrams accompanied medieval texts on musical theory and aimed at translating complex sequences of musical tones and intervals, such as, in order to facilitate understanding. They were ultimately educational tools meant to be attentively studied and analysed. Here are some remarkable examples: But from all the cases I found, the double-page chart below from a 13th-century manuscript is arguably one of the most complex and intricate examples of this old technique. A great specimen of medieval visual exegesis that served as a teaching tool for musical theory, this graph represents the various divisions of a –an ancient single-string musical instrument.

Ancient arc diagrams from: Murdoch, John E. Antiquity and the Middle Ages. 5 of Album of Science. New York: Scribner, 1984. Treemaps As one of the most hailed methods of modern information visualization, the treemap has truly become an epitome of the recent growth of the field and one of the most widespread methods for visualizing hierarchies.

Credited with inventing the method in 1991, when trying to find an optimal solution to visualize the file structure of his hard drive, Ben Shneiderman’s contribution is invaluable, opening the door to a great diversity of novel approaches, such as the circular and voronoi treemaps. Here’s a screenshot from one of the earliest modern treemaps: Shneiderman is certainly the father of the modern, computer-generated treemap, which introduced an important recursive tilling algorithm able to handle large, multi-level hierarchies.

But the concept was not entirely groundbreaking. Area diagrams and simplified rectangular treemaps had been in use for several decades before Shneiderman’s preeminent work. The image below shows a comparative diagram showing the size and population of each continent and country of the world, part of a world atlas compiled in 1845. This is a four-level treemap, where the world (1) is comprised of three major “continents” (2), divided into regions (3), and further subdivided into individual countries (4). The following chart is perhaps known to some of you, since it has surfaced in a few places in print and online like. It is not only one of the earliest examples of a rectangular treemap, but also makes a compelling use of the technique. Old Visual Metaphors As with many other contemporary visualization techniques, the previous examples show us that the roots of arc diagrams and treemaps are considerably deeper than what they seem.

Even though I only explored two visual methods in this post, a similar analysis could easily embrace many other present-day models. Others, such as, seem to be genuinely digital-native, given it’s dynamic exploration of hyperbolic space and reliability on human-computer interaction.

Still, their unmistakable predecessors - radial trees - have been in use for several decades, and many researchers and artists, most notably E. Escher, have throughly investigated hyperbolic geometry in their work. The goal of this post is not to devalue the contribution of main figures in modern information visualization, nor to provide a negative everything-has-already-been-invented attitude. Above all, it is to recognize the ancient evolution of this discipline and the achievements of the past, to understand their origins, progress, challenges, failures, and successes.

As Mark Twain appears to have said: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”. Posted: June 17th, 2013 Author: Filed under: The recent app for in NYC features a smart, effortless visual indicator for bike stations that is quite successful. They could have done this little icon in several different ways: perhaps a simple static icon featuring the number of available bikes/docks for each station that when tapped would provide additional information. Instead, they explored a glass full/empty analogy (or hourglass metaphor) in a way that is playful, efficient, and understandable at a glance. Plus it is fed by live dynamic data. The pins that are “filled-up” with dark blue have more available bikes (better for picking them up), versus the cyan “empty” ones that have more available docks (great for dropping them). A simple execution that made me smile.

Posted: January 9th, 2013 Author: Filed under: The power of graphics, and particularly the alluring quality of the circle, has once again been appropriated to communicate a critical, much-needed theory. Oxfam senior researcher and former co-author of the UN’s annual Human Development Report Kate Raworth has introduced a popular diagram that integrates a series of planetary boundaries with a set of social responsibility elements. This image has become so popular that it’s currently driving the emergence of a new label called “Doughnut Economics”. This phenomenon is not necessarily new. There are numerous examples of a specific graphic model having such a powerful influence that it becomes the ultimate epitome of the underlying concept. Think about Darwin’s Tree of Life or the Copernican model. This occurrence seems to corroborate the general principle of a successful information graphic: have a strong/unique underlying thesis or point of view.

Here is the image that’s generating such a buzz: You can also see below an insightful talk by Raworth at the Royal Society of Arts where she explains the theoretical framework behind the image. “I’m really stoked by the traction this diagram has had and I’m asking myself why?”, stated Raworth during her talk, and she then exposed three reasons to explain the diagram’s recent popularity (in her own words): (1) The framing of planetary boundaries is a very very powerful one, it makes the complexity of earth system science accessible to non-scientists and helps us to see the planet as a whole, as a system of interlocking processes that we depend upon for our well-being. (2) By putting that social foundation in the heart of it, it brings into one simple picture the world of development and the world of environment, and it helps to end the false dichotomy that we face that either you are for development and ending poverty, or you are for protecting the environment (3) People are interested in it because it gives us a chance to rethink economic development, instead of starting with economic growth, we start with the fundamentals of what we care about. Posted: November 12th, 2012 Author: Filed under: In November 2011, I on the recent and astonishing popularity of these long graphical strips, commonly known as infographics. In the same post I showed 42 samples that people submitted to over the period of roughly a year (see sample below).

It’s particularly interesting to recall that less than four years ago the term infographic used to cover any type of chart, graph, diagram, histogram, table or illustration conveying a specific data attribute. We called it simply, an information graphic. But over the past few years, the expression has become closely associated with a long vertical table encompassing a variety of graphical elements, such as maps, uncanny clip art, miscellaneous charts, large text and bulky numbers. This association is currently so strong that it seems almost impossible to keep the two concepts apart.

Consequently, the recent outburst of popularity of infographics has caused the emergence of various companies dedicated almost exclusively to the production of this type of graphic for private clients, institutions, blogs, and mainstream media; making it arguably one the strongest economic forces within the information design landscape. But as with many other types of contemporary graphics, the idea in itself is not entirely novel. The papyrus roll from Ancient Egypt, the direct ancestor of the modern book, is conceivably also the ancient forefather of modern infographics.

Consisting of papyrus sheets pasted edge to edge with a slight overlap, the text and graphics was set out in columns, and drawn up at right angles to the edge of the rolls. Even though most papyrus were meant to be read from left to right, unrolling them as the reader went along, some also explored a vertical top-down linear narrative.

This concept was further propelled across Middle Age Europe, where scholars were at loss trying to integrate all the new knowledge coming from the ancient world, and biblical exegesis was evolving from a simple allegorical division to a complex analytical process. During this stage we can witness a variety of parchment scrolls employing a diagrammatic representation of biblical tales, family trees, systems of law, knowledge maps, amongst many other topics. On the left we can see two compelling medieval specimens. The first on the left is a small part of a remarkable genealogy of Christ from circa 1130-1205, while the second is a depiction of the genealogical tree of the House of Habsburg, circa 1540. But out of all the cases I’ve seen in the past, the chart below is perhaps one of the best examples of a prototypical infographic and a strong progenitor of such a concept, abundantly explored in the last few years.

This 19th century piece is showcased in the magnificent book, published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010. Printed by Joshua Himes in 1842, A Chronological Chart of the Visions of Daniel and John, integrates the visual logic of the timeline, chronological calculus and apocalyptic symbolism in a single scheme. The final date in the left-hand column, 1843, indicates the coming of the end of the world. As explains in a: “This infographic is based on the religious revivalist predictions of the New England minister, William Miller. From the 1830s, Miller’s followers produced stirring books, pamphlets, broadsides and innovative graphics to spread the word of the coming apocalypse, often displayed and distributed at popular camp meetings.” The resemblance with modern-day infographics is primarily based on three features: (1) The portrayal of a specific story or topic in a long top-down graphical layout. (2) The use of specific illustrations or clip art (in the case of present-day versions) with complementary text to better elucidate the various components of the subject.

(3) The inclusion of large numbers to convey specific quantities pertaining to the analyzed topic. Here’s a comparison of the 1834 chart next to two modern infographic approaches. Posted: October 23rd, 2012 Author: Filed under: About two years ago, in November 2010, I stating I much I enjoyed and admired the “ remarkable examples of visual storytelling” produced by the (RSA) and in their enticing series. Earlier this year I received an email from RSA telling me that they were considering turning my, from December 2011, into an RSAnimate.

I was absolutely over the moon. In May 2012, the 12th video of the series was released, based on my talk ““. The final result exceeded all my expectations, and to this day I’m still dumbfounded by the phenomenal creativity of and his team, and the fantastic visual metaphors they continuously come up with. Apart from the video you can also a pdf of the complete final drawing, or order a (well worth it). Here are some images of the final composition.

Posted: October 24th, 2011 Author: Filed under:.This text was part of an extinct chapter of, which never saw the light of day. Instead of being forgotten in a dusty folder, I decided to make it available to the general public and invite any constructive criticism by our growing community.

Hope you will find it useful. Data and information visualization are fundamentally about showing quantitative and qualitative information so that a viewer can see patterns, trends, or anomalies, constancy or variation, in ways that other forms – text and tables – do not allow. Michael Friendly - The concept of visualization is certainly not new.

Humans have been involved in the visual representation of information for more than 30,000 years. During this time, there has been a variety of portrayed subjects, many of them pertaining to natural phenomena, but the common underlying purpose of communicating a message has always been present. Whether we talk about cave paintings, cuneiforms, maps, or charts, we are always alluding to information in a quality of a message from a sender to one or more receivers. “The progress of civilization can be read in the invention of visual artifacts, from writing to mathematics, to maps, to printing, to diagrams, to visual computing.”, say Card, Mackinlay and Shneiderman. Historian Alfred W.

Crosby attests to the importance of visual aids throughout the ages, by claiming that visualization and measurement were the two factors most responsible for the rapid development of all of modern science. Even though visual artifacts have always been a central element in the history of humankind, over the last 25 years the term “visualization” has become immensely popular, being fragmented in a profusion of subfields, carrying a diversity of specialized labels such as Information Visualization, Data Visualization, Scientific Visualization, Software Visualization, Geographic Visualization, Knowledge Visualization, Flow Visualization, and even Music Visualization. Many of these areas emerged in the midst of existing parallel areas like Information Design, Information Graphics, and Visual Communication. The distinction between them is occasionally thin, and in some cases almost inexistent. This rich plethora of labels is certainly indicative of the outburst of a new practice, but one that is still struggling to define itself.

While some consider this to be the birth of a new medium, or even a new science, the consensus on a definite descriptive label is not so obvious. Originally coined by Jock Mackinlay and his User Interface Research Group at Xerox PARC in 1986, information visualization relates to the “use of computer-supported, interactive, visual representations of abstract data to amplify cognition”. It’s in essence a computer-driven transformation of abstract data (distinct from physical data – the earth, molecules, cells, human body, etc) into an interactive visual depiction aiming at insight – which in turn translates into “discovery, decision-making, and explanation”. Congregating a vast body of research from computer science, human-computer interaction, communication design, cognitive psychology, semiotics, statistical graphics, cartography, and art, modern information visualization surfaced from advances in computer graphics and was further consolidated in 1987, when the NSF Panel on Graphics, Image Processing, and Workstations published its landmark report Visualization in Scientific Computing. Since then, information visualization has grown considerably as an independent discipline, fostered by many conferences and workshops dedicated to the topic, particularly the prominent IEEE Computer Society symposium on Information Visualization, known as the InfoVis conference, first held in 1995.

With roughly two decades, information visualization has already been the target of some criticism and dismissal. Most of it comes from an inadequacy of the field to swiftly adapt to recent changes, caused by a large adoption from eager art and design communities and an escalating curiosity from media, advertising, and publishing.

As a close-knit group, naturally inclined towards the computer science community, as a result of its own heritage, information visualization must take a stance to either adjust to these changes and fully accept its growing popularity, or instead, remain a niche inward-looking academic practice. Some signs of an embrace between traditional circles and the new wave of enthusiasts are already starting to surface, and this initial hesitation might simply go down in history as the normal shyness of a first date. Nonetheless, it is not surprising that under the present uncertainty, some voices have come forward suggesting new terms and definitions. Ben Fry in his PhD thesis defended a new label called “Computational Information Design”, able to properly integrate information visualization, data mining and graphic design, while Robert Kosara is a promoter of “Visual Analytics”, with a stronger emphasis on analytical reasoning. While many of the arguments for new labels reinforcing specific scientific or design concerns are certainly valid, there’s a major concern of an excessive breakup of a field that’s still defining itself. Instead of trying to devise new titles for alternative branches highlighting a particular area of focus, the effort should be in creating a bridge between the existing body of research and the abundance of novel demands, in an attempt to revise and renovate the field, steering information visualization into a mature, integrated, and in demand hotspot. If willing to adapt, the field is broad enough to fully encompass most requirements, from a stronger prominence of design to a reinforced attention to analytics.

This doesn’t mean the discipline can incorporate any attempt at visualizing data. But in essence, all interactive visual representations, able to make the depicted subject more intelligible and transparent, or find a new explicit insight within it, can and should be embraced by information visualization.

Unified Framework Information visualization is well known for its multidisciplinary nature, assembling people from a vast assortment of backgrounds, but notwithstanding the contribution of innumerous disciplines, we can still highlight three main spheres of activity that best characterize its key attributes and capabilities. Readers familiarized with research publications in the field will find this conception slightly different from previous frameworks developed by Stuart Card, Jock Mackinlay, Ben Shneiderman, and Ed Chi. The deliberate intent of this reframing is to emphasize the leading role of design, in both visual and interactive choices, and the fundamental function of statistics and data mining.

This is ultimately an integrating, yet diverse framework, keeping alive the heterogeneous nature of the discipline. Here we describe the three central layers of information visualization: Data Transformation, Visual Mapping and Interactive Framing. Even though there’s a natural progression between the three stages that doesn’t mean they sustain in a fixed order. There’s a lot of refinement taking place in a continuous iterative process that forces each step to be occasionally revisited. Data Transformation This is the very first stage in the development of any information visualization project. Without data no visualization would even be possible, hence everything starts by attaining access to a particular dataset relevant to the project’s pursuit. After getting hold of the data, what follows is a long process of data analysis, which includes inspecting, cleaning, filtering, and parsing the data, while organizing the relevant parts and removing the irrelevant.

The subsequent process of data mining is crucial in order to have a better understanding of the natural affordances of the dataset. It encompasses a series of queries and algorithms in order to extract particular patterns in the data for some quick modeling and visualization tests, which will be of great importance in the build up of the second stage. Data transformation is the essential foundation of a successful execution, and covers areas like programming, statistics, data analysis, data mining, analytics, and machine learning. Visual mapping Visual mapping is a critical step in information visualization, where data finally comes to life through a deliberate visual form. It takes into consideration key factors like top-to-bottom hierarchy, color, legibility, typeface, contrast, spacing, position, size, shape, orientation, layout, and depth. This central task contemplates not only individual views or modules, but also the composition of the entire contiguous environment. The choice of a particular method (or methods) is tied with the specific goal of the piece – its intrinsic purpose – and might be defined a priori or during project development, as the natural affordances of the data come into place.

It’s also highly dependent on end users, their immediate context and expressed needs – when, where, and how the final execution will be used. Visual mapping is tied with various areas of visual design, including graphic design, information design, interface design, visual perception, cognitive psychology, aesthetics, and typography. Furthermore, it’s essentially made of two components: graphical objects and textual objects. Interactive Framing Information visualization is ultimately a discovery tool, and interactivity provides the final coalescing layer for exploration. “Visual representations and interaction techniques take advantage of the human eye’s broad bandwidth pathway into the mind to allow users to see, explore, and understand large amounts of information at once”, elucidate James Thomas and Kristin Cook, and they further explain, “Visual representations alone cannot satisfy analytical needs. Interaction techniques are required to support the dialogue between the analyst and the data.

While basic interactions such as search techniques are common in software today, more sophisticated interactions are also needed to support the analytical reasoning process.” Some don’t see the clear-cut need for interaction in information visualization, so it’s important to clarify this assertion. In a broader definition of visualization, it’s broadly consensual that information can be successfully conveyed in either static or interactive executions. However, we have to question what really sets information visualization apart from other parallel fields such as information design or information graphics. It’s in fact its computer-supported interactive nature that truly makes it distinct, and this unique offering becomes imperative as the degree of complexity of the portrayed system increases. The representation of complex networks is just an instance where interactivity is vital.

Manuel Lima Visual Complexity Mapping Patterns Of Information

Manuel Lima Visual Complexity

Coupled with a relevant time-variant dataset, interactivity can also be a critical driver in a shift from short-term casual engagement to long-term active engagement, substantiating information visualization as a significant tool for exploration. But interactive framing is not limited to the constraints of a computer screen. It covers any responsive visualization where a.