Vis or Not Vis

Coming from the academic and computer science side of visualization, I always assumed that it would be self-evident to anybody that visualization is first and foremost useful, and only happens to also produce nice pictures. Alas, this is not actually the case. To most people, visualization means pretty pictures first, and maybe also a fact or two. We have to fight that or risk the trivialization and marginalization of visualization as an analytic tool.

Of all the sins committed against visualization on the Internet, the Periodic Table of Visualization Methods stands out as the most egregious. Its collection of actual visualization methods, structural diagrams, and feel-good business bullshit does not fit a structure that was devised to understand the world – and that is actually a very effective visualization in itself.

Music and visualization are two things that fascinate me. I always felt that they had something in common, and I recently figured out what it was: structure. That may not be the correct musical term, but it should be clear what I mean nonetheless: the rhythmic structure of music, with its repeated patterns and variations, is what makes music. And that is also what makes abstract images interesting to look at, and what we look for in visualization. So I decided to start another website for my musings on music: EagerEars.

What is a visualization? The word is problematic, and there have been very few definitions that try to define this field we are working in. More importantly: what is not a visualization? It is easy to argue that anything visual is a visualization in some way – but does that mean anything? Here is a definition of visualization and a few examples to illustrate the different criteria.

The term visualization is used to mean different things in different contexts, and even visualization that is based on data can be done for different reasons and with different goals. Mixing up these different types of visualization leads to misunderstandings and confusion. Here is an attempt at teasing apart the two major types of data-based visualization, and understanding the differences.

While working on the ZIPScribble map, I started to wonder how to untangle the beautifully scribbly lines, and finding the shortest path through all ZIP codes. In computer science, this is called the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP), and so I decided to make this the Travelling Presidential Candidate Map.

Visualization people often talk about mapping. Mapping is the process that translates data into a visual representation, and the main challenge in the visualization of abstract data. A good mapping is one that leads to insights into the data, while a bad mapping does not. It is important, however, to keep in mind what the purpose of the depiction is, or one runs the risk of applying the wrong standards.