Storytelling in InfoVis · 1 Storytelling in InfoVis CS 4460 –Intro. to Information Visualization...

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Storytelling in InfoVis

CS 4460 – Intro. to Information Visualization

September 2, 2014

John Stasko

Purpose

• Two main uses of infovis

Analysis – Understand your data better and act upon that understanding

Presentation – Communicate and inform others more effectively

• Today we look at that second one more

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Review

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Telling Stories

• Data visualization can help to communicate ideas, summarize, influence, unite, explain, persuade

• Visuals can serve as evidence or support

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A Famous Example

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http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html

Hans RoslingGapminder

2006

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They Had Him Back

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http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html

2007

Discuss

• Why has this had such a big impact?

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InfoGraphics

• See them everywhere today

• Perhaps a good example of infovis for presentation purposes

Typically not interactive though

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http://visual.ly/nuclear-arms-race

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http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1002/almighty-dollar/transparency.jpg

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http://www.mikewirthart.com/?cat=3

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http://thedinfographics.com/2011/11/16/obesity-in-america-facts-statistics-and-lies/

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http://www.wired.com/2012/07/you-suck-at-infographics

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A Lead Paper

• Studied storytelling: Described topics as “Narrative Visualization”

How does this differ from traditional forms of storytelling

Reviews the designspace

Characterizes genres

Describes a framework

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Segel & HeerTVCG (InfoVis) ‘10

Case Studies

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NY Times 2006

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Design Space Dimensions

• Genre (next slide)

• Visual Narrative Tactics Visual structuring

Highlighting

Transition Guidance

• Narrative Structure (non-visual mechanisms to assist narrative) Ordering

Interactivity

Messaging

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Genres

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Observations

• Clusters of different ordering structures

• Consistency of interaction design

• Under-utilization of narrative messaging

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Approach

• Author-driven vs. reader-driven

• Common patterns

Martini glass

Interactive slideshow

Drill-down story

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A Hot Topic

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http://thevcl.com/storytelling/ http://flowingdata.com/2010/11/11/telling-stories-with-data-a-visweek-2010-workshop/

VisWeek 2010 WorkshopReprised again Fall 2011Continued papers at later InfoVis

Narratology

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Interesting talkat workshop

Jessica HullmanUniv. Michigan

Expanded upon insubsequent papers

http://thevcl.com/storytelling/docs/jessica_hullman.pdf

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Journalism Angle

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http://datadrivenjournalism.net

Data Journalism Handbook

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http://datajournalismhandbook.org/1.0/en/

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Journalism in the Age of Data

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http://datajournalism.stanford.edu/

Video

Some Examples

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News Stories

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Tufte praises the work ofMegan Jaegerman at NY Times

http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0002w4

An Inconvenient Truth

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Gore made extensive useof data graphics

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Job Losses

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Controversial, see http://soquelbythecreek.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-does-obama-job-chart-really-mean.html

Mariano Rivera

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http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/06/29/magazine/rivera-pitches.html?ref=multimedia

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Casualties of War

http://www.cnn.com/homeandaway

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The President

Going Interactive

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2011 State of Union Address

Side channeldata visualizationsaccompanied speech

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Data Matters

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http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html

DavidMcCandless

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McCandless Website

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http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/

More Visualization Stories

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AaronKoblin

http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_koblin.html

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Back to Where We Started

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo

Questions

• How do these types of visualizations differ from “traditional” infovis?

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Questions

• What is emphasized in “presentational” infovis versus “analytic” infovis?

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My Reflections

• InfoVis for analysis and presentation are different

Apples & oranges (both fruit though)

• How?

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HW 1 Discussion

• Some examples

• Thoughts

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Project

• More topic ideas

• Team formed?

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Upcoming

• Multivariate Data & Table/Graph Design

Reading:

Munzner chapter 2

• Few’s Design Guidance

Reading:

Now You See It, chapters 5-12