Wills G. Visualizing Time: Designing Graphical Representations for Statistical Data

Springer, 2012. — 268 p. — ISBN 038777906XContains over 100 figures, many in color.
All new text and material.
A go-to reference for how to visualize time.
Art, or Science? Which of these is the right way to think of the field of visualization? This is not an easy question to answer, even for those who have many years experience in making graphical depictions of data with a view to help people understand it and take action. In this book, Graham Wills bridges the gap between the art and the science of visually representing statistical data. He does not simply give rules and advice, but bases these on general principles and provides a clear path between them.
This book is concerned with the graphical representation of time data and is written to cover a range of different users. A visualization expert designing tools for displaying time will find it valuable, but so also should a financier assembling a report in a spreadsheet, or a medical researcher trying to display gene sequences using a commercial statistical package.History
The Importance of Time
Ancient Visualizations of TimePlayfairNapoleon’s March
A Fortunate CorrelationComic BooksFurther Exploration
Framework
How to Speak Visualization
Elements
Point
Line
Area
Interval
Schema
Multiple Elements
Statistics
Local Smooths
Complex Statistics
Aesthetics
Categorical and Continuous Aesthetics
Combining Aesthetics
Coordinates and Faceting
Coordinates
Faceting
Additional Features: Guides, Interactivity, Styles
Guides
Interactivity
StylesFurther Exploration
Designing Visualizations
Guiding Principles
The GQM Methodology.
Goals
PresentingWhat Is Important
Seeing General Patterns
Spotting Unusual Features
Questions
One Variable: Unusual Values
One Variable: Showing Distribution
Two Variables: Showing Relationships and
Unusual Values
Multiple Variables: Conditional Relationships,
Groups, and Unusual Relationships
Multiple Variables: Showing Models
Mappings
Systems of Visualizations
Narrative Structure
Consistency
Stereotypes
Top-Down Versus Bottom-UpFurther Exploration
Types of Data
Four-MinuteMile, Day of the Week, Bottom of the Ninth
Scales of Measurement
Form Follows Function
Events and Intervals
Regular and Irregular Data
Date and Time FormatsFurther Exploration
Time as a Coordinate
Put It on the Horizontal Axis
Event Occurrences
Many Events
Regular Categorical Sequences
Patterns in SequencesFurther Exploration
Coordinate Systems, Transformations, Faceting, and Axes
Time Series
Aspect Ratio
Coordinate Transformations
Axes
Drawing Time Axes
Formatting Time Ticks
Faceting
Faceting by Time
Faceting Complexity
Time Within a Faceting
FacetingWhen Data Are Not CategoricalFurther Exploration
Aesthetics
Time as a Main Aesthetic
Representing Counts
Summarizing and Splitting Aesthetics
Specific Aesthetics
Coloring by Time
Sizing by Time
Shaping by Time
Other Aesthetics and Time
Time as a Secondary AestheticFurther Exploration
Transformations
Distortions of Time
Time as Frequency
Converting Between Categorical and Continuous
From Categories to Continuous
From Continuous to CategoriesFurther Exploration
Interactivity
A Framework for Interactivity
Display Pipeline
Modifying Parameters
Modifying Element Parameters
Modifying Aesthetic Parameters
Modifying Coordinate Parameters
Modifying Statistic Parameters
Modifying Scale Parameters
Modifying Facet Parameters
Modifying Transform Parameters
Interacting via the Data
Brushing and Linking
Drill-downFurther Exploration
Topics In Time
Large Data Sets
Aggregration
Augmenting Traditional Displays
Time Lines and Linked Events
Linked Events
TimelinesFurther Exploration
Gallery of Figures
Chart Complexity
Complexity Study Procedure.
Initial Analysis
Model Fitting
Discussion
Application to the Figures in This Book
The Gallery