Gestalt is German for “Unified Whole”. Gestalt psychologists Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler sought to understand how we humans make sense of what we see from the chaotic stimuli around us. Their findings were that we seek to form patterns, group objects in particular ways and simplify complex images. The main principle of…
When working with data, it is important to understand the purpose of data analysis. Though the end result of a data analysis process may be a single visualization, there are various stages this analysis goes through. Broadly, there are 2 types of data analysis: Exploratory analysis – Exploratory analysis is often the first step of…
Reporters from the Center for Investigative Reporting sought employee diversity data from 211 technology companies in San Fransisco. A couple of dozen companies shared their data. Here is a visualization of how race and gender diversity for 23 companies in Silicon Valley. The data was analysed using R and the visualization is using d3.js.
Pie charts are the most controversial charts in Data Visualization. With arguments ranging from don’t use pie charts ever to let’s use them when appropriate, there are a lot of opinions on pie charts. Rightly so. Because there is so much we still do not understand about pie charts and let’s face it, there are…
9This series is a collection of small changes in data visualization that make a big difference to the end result. In this article we cover two of the most underrated elements of a graph – Tick marks and Gridlines. What are tick marks and gridlines? Tick marks and gridlines do not represent values themselves. They…
Let’s learn how to create a bar chart in D3.js. To access the entire code for this tutorial, follow this link. First a few basic concepts. SVG: SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics and is commonly used to display a variety of graphics on the web. SVG is nothing more than simple text files that…
This series is a collection of small changes in data visualization that make a big difference to the end result. When using bar charts, the axis needs to start at zero. Why? Its simpler to understand this if we start with an example. This chart below was used by Twitter in its IPO filing. What do you…