Some interesting visualization charts from the information aesthetics blog, with some interesting linear, tree representations and social-spacial:

1 ) The Effects of Chart Size and Layering on the Perception of Time Series Visualizations

Data visualization consultant Stephen Few has just posted an excellent article [perceptualedge.com] about a recent time-series visualization called the Horizon Graph. Originally developed by data visualization software firm Panopticon, Horizon Graphs can display about 50 sets of time-series values on a single screen. This particular visualization technique was the focus of a detailed evaluation study described by Jeffrey Heer, graduate researcher Nicholas Kong, and Maneesh Agrawala. The results are described in the scientific paper titled "Sizing the Horizon: The Effects of Chart Size and Layering on the Graphical Perception of Time Series Visualizations" (PDF) [berkeley.edu].

In the paper, 2 different experiments are described. The goal of the first experiment was to determine the impact of the band number and horizon graph variant ("mirrored", flipping the negative values around zero, versus "offset") on value comparisons between horizon graphs. The goal of the second experiment was to compare normal line charts to horizon graphs and investigate the effect of chart height on both.

Want to know the dry results? No significant difference was found in either estimation time or accuracy between the different chart types. However, both estimation time and error increased as more bands were displayed. In the 2nd experiment, the estimation error increased as chart size decreased; layering increased estimation time, and mirroring did not; and lastly, the estimation time decreases with chart height.

More interestingly, from the results, following 3 design guidelines were proposed:

• Mirroring Does Not Hamper Graphical Perception. Mirroring a chart (that is flipping the negative values around zero) neither slowed estimation time nor hurt estimation accuracy, but cuts the size of the chart in half.


• Layered Bands Are Beneficial As Chart Size Decreases. Dividing a chart into layered bands increased the estimation time and increased the estimation error at constant chart heights. Therefore, the use of 4 or more bands is discouraged, as this resulted in increased time and error, while subjects complained that interpreting 4-band charts was difficult and tiring


• Optimal Chart Sizing. For both normal line charts and 1-band mirror charts, they found a chart height of 24 pixels to be optimal

2) TreeViz: Visualization of Large Tree Structures

TreeViz [randelshofer.ch] is an amazingly small and elegant application (working on all OS platforms) that is able to visualize large data structures organized in a tree by 7(!) different interactive data visualization techniques: Hyperbolic Tree, Circular Treemap, Rectangular Treemap, Sunburst Tree, Icicle Tree, Sunray Tree and Iceray Tree. The project currently consists of a file browser demonstration, which visually represent your computer system's file structure.

3) If the World were a Village of 100 People

A gigantic isometric eBoy-like infographic, based on the concept of summarizing world statistics as a village of 100 people [binsworld.com]. As a result, all the objects and characteristics within it become a percentage: 6 cars, 24 televisions, 9 English speaking people, 10 homosexuals, and so on. The village is divided into 5 navigable zones: Economy, Life, Food, Danger and a World map.

However, somewhere the concept became a bit lost, as I suppose the 300 million bottles of wine and 2500 million cups of coffee are not destined to be consumed by a meager 100 people?

See also Miniature Earth.

4) Finally - Dopplr presents the Personal Annual Report 2008: freshly generated for you, and Barack Obama…
Dopplr generated the Personal Annual Report for its users. It’s a unique-to-you PDF of data, visualisations and factoids about where they travel in 2008,

An example shown was the Personal Annual Report President Barack Obama.

"The main info-visualisation element of the report is the 2008 timeline, where we represent the trips you’ve taken throughout the year, pulling out the places you’ve stayed the longest and, where we can illustrating them with the Creative-Commons-licenced, Flickr-sourced photography we use on our new city pages. Then, in the main body of the report there are a number of other things from your 2008 we try and surface, such as the fellow travellers that you coincide with most on your trips. "

Can a similar principal be used for the element of the timeline in the IEAT by showing fellow information of other scientists in the lab?