Unit 4 Reading Summary

I found chapter two very difficult to read - style of writing was the problem I believe. However, I was able to gleam some information from it. The author's thought process, although lengthy, was a good review; as was the references to software - Excel and Photoshop. I especially liked the Excel formulas and anticipate using it at some point (most likely for the project 2).

Other information I took note of was:

• Most visualization should have a goal or purpose and present data in a meaningful way - tell a story. Very few visualizations are just for show.
• Question + Visual Data + Context = Story
• Stacked time series
• Good rule of thumb: to restrict a visualization to stating things that can be seen from the data alone and allow the users to draw their own conclusions (don't skew or mislead)
• Maintain consistency when making data decisions and add a footnote to state said decisions
• Visual hook: (I liked this term and analog) use something the users can relate to, i.e. continent maps, icons - makes it more likely that the audience will remember the visualization.
• Reduce users comprehension time increases impact of the visualization (leave out the clutter)
• Twist: (another good one) violating the norm (or expectations) of the users; i.e. making one continent smaller than actual size in comparison to another of unusual larger size
• Maps: use .svg (usually found in Wikipedia commons) scalable vector graphic file
• Map Visual Anchor: choose the largest measurement, open in Photoshop and use histogram to determine pixel size; and use that number in an Excel formula to accurately scale each element