CHAP TER 1 What Is Data Visualization Data visualization is all around us It’s a map in your social studies book showing which states fought on which side of the Civil War It’s a pie chart in math class or an infographic on social media It’s a bar chart hanging on the wall in a bank Wherever you look you’re bound to spot some form of data visualization What is data It’s information Specifically data usually means numbers Data visualization puts those numbers in an eye catching visual format Instead of just showing a boring list of numbers visualizations organize and sort information into patterns that help you understand an issue You may have heard of the famous nurse Florence Nightingale But did you know that she was a pioneer of data visualization 4 21st century skills library
You may have worked with data visualizations as part of your math assignments 5 55 Data Geek
She wanted to show government and military leaders how many soldiers were dying unnecessarily Take a look at the image on page 8 a close-up of part of her creation You’ll notice a circle divided into sections that each represent a month Big events such as war efforts in Bulgaria and the Crimea are noted on the edge of certain months Each month’s pie slice is divided into additional sections The farther out each pie slice reaches from the center the more soldiers died that month Nightingale’s key not shown here identified the color scheme Red segments represent the number of deaths because of wounds Among warring soldiers this kind of death was sadly to be expected You can see that some months had many deaths from wounds because there is a greater amount of pink in those months Black segments note death from other causes that are not specified But it is the blue segments that really stand out Those Nightingale argued were the number of soldiers who died of preventable diseases In other words these are the groups that did not need to die Graphics told the story much better than the numbers could have Because the blue gray portions take over the page 6 21st century skills library Photo Caption
Nightingale made her point This introduces an important guideline to keep in mind as you create your own visualizations Behind every visualization is someone making an argument Nightingale’s argument was that too many soldiers were dying unnecessarily This weakened England’s military strength tied up too many medical workers and cost too much money Today you are more likely to see or make a chart or graph than a shape like Nightingale’s You’re especially likely to gather a bunch of little visual bits of information together in an infographic Rule of Thumb for Visualizations create a visualization just to make something pretty Use a visualization to add value and improve meaning Don’t Label everything in a visualization Every good visualization has a message behind it even if it isn’t said out loud 7777 Data Geek
