How to Talk Down to a Statistician

Paul Murrell
The University of Auckland

Overview

  • A bit about me

  • A data visualisation framework

  • Over to you

A Bit About Me

Simple Version

  • Profession
    • Statistician
  • Area of expertise
    • Data Visualisation

Complicated Version

  • Profession:
    • Academic Software Developer
    • Data Visualisation Lecturer
  • Area of expertise
    • Statistical Graphics

A Data Visualisation Framework

Simple Books

  • Claus O. Wilke
  • Edward Tufte
  • Kieran Healey
  • Naomi Robbins

Complicated

  • Alberto Cairo
  • Colin Ware
  • Leland Wilkinson
  • Stephen Kosslyn
  • Tamara Munzner

Simple Terminology

  • Data symbols
  • Guides
  • Labels

Complicated

  • Plots
  • Charts
  • Grid lines
  • Axes
  • Legends
  • Keys
  • Titles
  • Captions
  • Annotations

Data Symbols

Guides

Labels

Simple Visual Model

  • The eye

  • Visual Features

  • Visual Shapes

  • Visual Objects

Complicated

  • Retina
  • Rods
  • Cones
  • Optic chiasm
  • LGN
  • V1
  • V2
  • Feature maps
  • Dorsal pathway
  • Ventral pathway

A Very Simple Visual Model

A Very Simple Visual Model

Simple Focus on Mappings

Complicated

  • Channels/Dimensions
  • Representational analysis
  • Injective/Surjective/Bijective
  • Expressiveness
  • Effectiveness
  • Discriminability
  • Separable/Integral/Configural
  • Proximity compatibility
  • Ensembles
  • Emergent features
  • Icons

Map Data Values to Data Symbols

Map Data Values to Data Symbols

Map Data Values to Visual Features

Map Data Values to Visual Features

Map Back to Data Values

Map Back to Data Values

Map Back to Data Values

Map Back to Data Values

Map Back to Data Values

Map Back to Data Values

No Mapping

No Mapping

Redundant Mapping

Redundant Mapping

Map Data Statistics

Map Data Statistics

Map Back to Data Statistics

Map Back to Data Statistics

Combine Mappings

Combine Mappings

Combine Mappings

Multi-Value Mappings

Multi-Value Mappings

Multi-Value Mappings

Multiple Mappings

Multiple Mappings

Repeated Mappings

Repeated Mappings

Nested Mappings

Nested Mappings

Multivariate Mappings

Multivariate Mappings

Focus on Mappings

Grammar of Graphics

  • Data
  • Scales
  • Aesthetics
  • Geoms

Grammar of Graphics

Grammar of Graphics

ggplot(rates) + 
    geom_col(aes(x=Year, y=Rate, fill=Age), position="dodge")

Over to You

Where I am At

  • There are things that I have not yet integrated.
    I ran out of time

  • There are things that I cannot yet integrate.
    I ran out of brain

  • By my count, I have covered approximately 4 of 15 chapters of “Visualisation Analysis & Design”

What I Could Use Help With

  • Graph/network visualisations

  • Hierarchichal visualisations

  • Interactive graphics

  • Task taxonomies