Interactive Visualization ─ Insight through Inquiry

Interactive visualization is emerging as a vibrant new form of communication,providing compelling presentations that allow viewers to interact directly with information in orderto construct their own understandings of it. Building on a long tradition of print-based informationvisualization, interactive visualization utilizes the technological capabilities of computers, theInternet, and computer graphics to marshal multifaceted information in the service of making a pointvisually. This book offers an introduction to the field, presenting a framework for exploringhistorical, theoretical, and practical issues. It is not a "how-to" book tied to specificand soon-to-be-outdated software tools, but a guide to the concepts that are central to buildinginteractive visualization projects whatever their ultimate form. The framework the book presents(known as the ASSERT model, developed by the author), allows the reader to explore the process ofinteractive visualization in terms of choosing good questions to ask; finding appropriate data foranswering them; structuring that information; exploring and analyzing the data; representing thedata visually; and telling a story using the data. Interactive visualization draws on manydisciplines to inform the final representation, and the book reflects this, covering basicprinciples of inquiry, data structuring, information design, statistics, cognitive theory,usability, working with spreadsheets, the Internet, and storytelling.