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Why Data Visualizations DashingD3js - Com

The document discusses why data visualization is important and valuable. It provides examples like Anscombe's Quartet to show how visualizing data reveals patterns that are not evident from statistics alone. It also discusses how John Snow used maps to visualize cholera cases and discover the source of an outbreak.

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15 views10 pages

Why Data Visualizations DashingD3js - Com

The document discusses why data visualization is important and valuable. It provides examples like Anscombe's Quartet to show how visualizing data reveals patterns that are not evident from statistics alone. It also discusses how John Snow used maps to visualize cholera cases and discover the source of an outbreak.

Uploaded by

M
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Why Data Visualizations

A picture is worth 1000 words


A proverb
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Category:Proverbs) is a
simple and concrete saying popularly known and
revered, which expresses a truth, based on common
sense or the practical experience of humanity. The
proverb "A picture is worth 1000 words" is one you have
probably heard more than once.

A picture can also be worth 1000 data points. In 1973,


the statistician Francis Anscombe
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Anscombe)
demonstrated the importance of graphing data. The
Anscombe's Quartet
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anscombe's_quartet)
shows how four sets of data with identical simple
summary statistics can vary considerably when graphed.

Anscombe's Quartet Data Table


Data Set A
X Y

10.0 8.04
8.0 6.95

13.0 7.58

9.0 8.81

11.0 8.33

14.0 9.96

6.0 7.24

4.0 4.26

12.0 10.84

7.0 4.82

5.0 5.68

Data Set B
X Y

10.0 9.14

8.0 8.14

13.0 8.74

9.0 8.77

11.0 9.26

14.0 8.10

6.0 6.13

4.0 3.10

12.0 9.13

7.0 7.26

5.0 4.74

Data Set C
X Y

10.0 7.46
8.0 6.77

13.0 12.74

9.0 7.11

11.0 7.81

14.0 8.84

6.0 6.08

4.0 5.39

12.0 8.15

7.0 6.42

5.0 5.73

Data Set D
X Y

8.0 6.58

8.0 5.76

8.0 7.71

8.0 8.84

8.0 8.47

8.0 7.04

8.0 5.25

19.0 12.50

8.0 5.56

8.0 7.91

8.0 6.89

Simple Summary Statistics of Anscombe's Quartet Data


Table
Property Value

Mean of x of each data set 9 (exact)

Variance of x in each data 11 (exact)


set

Mean of y in each data set 7.50 (to 2 decimal places)

Variance of y in each data 4.122 or 4.127 (to 3 decimal places)


set

Correlation between 0.816 (to 3 decimal places)


x and y in each data set

Linear regression line y = 3.00 + 0.500x


for each data set (to 2 and 3 decimal places,
respectively)

Graph of Anscombe's Quartet Data Table


source: Wikimedia Commons (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?

title=File:Anscombe%27s_quartet_3.svg&page=1)

It is hard to tell how the data behaves in the data table.


The simple summary statistics table would lead us to
believe that all of the data sets are the same. Only when
we graph the data do we get a clear picture how the data
behaves.

A Famous Data Visualization


In 1854, a cholera outbreak killed 600 people in
London. The physician John Snow
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow_(physician))
made this outbreak famous. John Snow used Data
Visualization to show that cholera is spread by
contaminated water.

At this point in history the germ theory of disease


(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germ_theory_of_disease)
was not known. This theory proposes that micro-
organism are the cause of many diseases. Since the
theory was not known, the spread of cholera was a
mystery to public health officials.

John Snow spoke with locals near the cholera outbreak


to discover the source of the germs spreading the
disease. He used a "dot distribution map
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_distribution_map)"
to show how the cholera cases were clustered. He
showed the cases were clustered around a public water
pump on Broad Street.

John Snow's Dot Distribution Map of Broad Street


Cholera Cases
source: Wikimedia Commons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Snow-

cholera-map-1.jpg)

In addition to this Public Health Data Visualization,


John Snow conducted further research. This work is
seen as a major event in the history of public health and
geography. The work is regarded as the birth of modern
Epidemiology
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology).

Data - now and in the future


Gigantic mounts of data are being generated on a daily
basis. The amount of data being generated is growing
exponentially every year. Below is an info graphic
example of the data generated from the 2012 Olympic
Games - a single event.

2012 Olympic Games Data Generated Infographic

source: NetApp (http://www.netapp.com/)


If one event generates this type of data, just think of how
much data is going to be generated and ripe for analysis
on a daily basis. This has lead big data analysts to posit
that Data is the new Oil.

Data is the new Oil


In 2006, Michael Palmer
(http://ana.blogs.com/maestros/2006/11/data_is_the_new.html)
wrote "Data is the new oil!" declaring "Data is just like
crude. It’s valuable, but if unrefined it cannot really be
used. It has to be changed into gas, plastic, chemicals,
etc to create a valuable entity that drives profitable
activity; so must data be broken down, analyzed for it to
have value."

Since then, several fascinating people have come out


saying and supporting the "Data is the new oil"
statement. For instance => “Data is the new oil,” said
Andreas Weigend (http://www.weigend.com/),
Stanford’s Head of the Social Data Lab
(http://groupspaces.com/sdl), also the former Chief
Scientist at Amazon (http://amazon.com/).

What is interesting for us that that the data has to be


"refined" to create a valuable entity. Hal Varian
(http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/), Google's
Chief Economist, opined in The McKinsey Quarterly
(http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/), Jan 2009:
"The ability to take data—to be able to
understand it, to process it, to extract
value from it, to visualize it, to
communicate it—that’s going to be a
hugely important skill in the next
decades, … because now we really do
have essentially free and ubiquitous
data. So the complimentary scarce
factor is the ability to understand that
data and extract value from it."

Which brings us back to the first heading of this section


-> "A picture is worth a thousand words." The ability to
understand and extract value from data is hugely easier
when done through a Data Visualization rather than
from looking at the raw data or the simple statistics of
the data.

If you found this D3 Tutorial helpful, you'll enjoy these FREE videos:

D3 Zoom for SVG Lines and SVG Paths Part Two


(https://www.dashingd3js.com/lessons/d3-zoom-for-svg-lines-and-
svg-paths-part-two)
Making Dynamic Scales and Axes
(https://www.dashingd3js.com/lessons/making-dynamic-scales-and-
axes)
Static and Dynamic Data and Web Pages
(https://www.dashingd3js.com/lessons/static-and-dynamic-data-
and-web-pages)

← D3 Tutorial Table of Contents (https://www.dashingd3js.com/table-of-

contents)
Why Build Data Visualizations with D3.js →
(https://www.dashingd3js.com/why-
build-with-d3js)
Learn D3.js
D3 Tutorial (https://www.dashingd3js.com/table-of-contents)
D3 Screencasts (https://www.dashingd3js.com/lessons)

D3 Training Series
D3 Introductory Training (https://www.dashingd3js.com/introductory-d3-course)
D3 Intermediate Training (https://www.dashingd3js.com/intermediate-d3-course)
D3 Mapping Training (https://www.dashingd3js.com/mapping-d3-course)
D3 Data Manipulation Training (https://www.dashingd3js.com/d3-data-manipulation)
D3 Corporate Training (https://www.dashingd3js.com/d3-training/corporate-data-
visualization-and-d3-js-training)
DashingD3js.com
Blog (https://www.dashingd3js.com/blog)
About (https://www.dashingd3js.com/about)
Hire Me (https://www.dashingd3js.com/d3-data-visualization-freelancer-and-consultant)
D3 Examples (https://www.dashingd3js.com/d3-examples)
D3 Resources (https://www.dashingd3js.com/d3-resources)
D3 & Data Viz Newsletter Archive (https://www.dashingd3js.com/data-visualization-and-
d3-newsletter)

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