Presenting Graphical Information on the Web

3. Principles for Statistical Graphics on the Web

• Designing Interactive Data Graphics

  • Edward Tufte's books on designing displays

    A few Tufte ideas (we will see good and bad examples of these later in Java graphs)

    • Avoid ChartJunk

    • Avoid false 3rd dimension and rotation

    • High data/ink ratio (now data/pixel ratio?)

    • Facilitate comparisons

    • Be careful with color

  • What to do with interactivity?
    • Don't do this!
      Spin the Pie Chart!

    • Great use of interactivity (but applet may be slow to load)
      This great applet and many other innovative methods for making images available on the web can be found at http://www.fsl.noaa.gov, the site for NOAA's Forecast Systems Lab in Boulder.

  • Psychological Research on Graph Comprehension
    • Eye Movement Analysis

    • Some ChartJunk improves memory for data
      (sorry, the example is broken)

  • Some Useful References (with links to Amazon.com)

    • Cleveland, W.S. (1993). Visualizing data. Hobart Press.

    • Harris, R.L. (1996). Information graphics: A comprehensive illustrated reference. Management Graphics.

    • Kosslyn, S.M. (1994). Elements of graph design. W.H. Freeman.

    • Myer, E.K. (1997). Designing infographics. Hayden Books.

    • Tufte, E.R. (1983). The visual display of quantitative information. Graphics Press.

    • Tufte, E.R. (1990). Envisioning information. Grapics Press.

    • Tufte, E.R. (1997). Visual explanations: Images and quantities, evidence and narrative. Graphics Press.

    • Wainer, H. (1997). Visual Revelations. Springer-Verlag.