Data Insights: New Ways to Visualize and Make Sense of Data - Softcover

Whitney, Hunter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0123877938 ISBN 13: 9780123877932

Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann, 2012

Synopsis

Data Insights: New Ways to Visualize and Make Sense of Data offers thought-provoking insights into how visualization can foster a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of data. The book offers perspectives from people with different backgrounds, including data scientists, statisticians, painters, and writers. It argues that all data is useless, or misleading, if we do not know what it means.
Organized into seven chapters, the book explores some of the ways that data visualization and other emerging approaches can make data meaningful and therefore useful. It also discusses some fundamental ideas and basic questions in the data lifecycle; the process of interactions between people, data, and displays that lead to better questions and more useful answers; and the fundamentals, origins, and purposes of the basic building blocks that are used in data visualization. The reader is introduced to tried and true approaches to understanding users in the context of user interface design, how communications can get distorted, and how data visualization is related to thinking machines. Finally, the book looks at the future of data visualization by assessing its strengths and weaknesses. Case studies from business analytics, healthcare, network monitoring, security, and games, among others, as well as illustrations, thought-provoking quotes, and real-world examples are included.
This book will prove useful to computer professionals, technical marketing professionals, content strategists, Web and product designers, and researchers.

• Demonstrates, with a variety of case studies, how visualizations can foster a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of data
• Answers the question, "How can data visualization help me?" with discussions of how it fits into a wide array of purposes and situations
• Makes the case that data visualization is not just about technology; it also involves a deeply human process

About this title

From the Back Cover

Data Insights offers multi-disciplinary perspectives and useful information about how visualizations can open your eyes to data. This thought-provoking book takes a conversational approach to presenting an overview of the subject, while also focusing on key details. It highlights the ideas and work of a variety of people who are actively contributing to this still emerging field. Case studies from business analytics, healthcare, games, security, and network monitoring, among others, portray what is going on in data visualization today. A diverse blend of original illustrations and real-world examples, both classical and cutting-edge, help fill in the picture.
This book provides an approachable overview of important aspects of data visualization, and...

• Demonstrates, with a variety of case studies, how visualizations can foster a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of data


• Answers the question, "How can data visualization help me?" with discussions of how it fits into a wide array of purposes and situations


• Makes the case that data visualization is not just about technology; it also involves a deeply human process

About the Author

Hunter Whitney is a User Experience (UX) Designer who has helped create useful and usable interface designs for clients in areas ranging from bioscience and medicine to information technology and marine biology. In addition to his UX work, he has written numerous articles about a range of subjects, including data visualization, for various online and print publications. His aim is to encourage conversations among people with diverse skills and perspectives about presenting data in ways that are more widely accessible and engaging. He received dual bachelor's degrees -- one in English Literature from UCLA and the other in Biology from UCSC -- and has completed post-graduate neuropsychology research at UCLA. The combination of these multidisciplinary studies reflects his longstanding interest in the intersection between the humanities and the sciences. (hunterwhitney.com)

Edition details

• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0123877938
• ISBN 13: 9780123877932
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320