Visio Guy

Or, visualisation for our friends who drive on the left...

One of our readers, joemako really got this going over on Information Design with Smart Shapes (http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=37.0), so I thought I'd spin-off this board with a topic about links to cool data visualization sites.

Let's swipe a few from joemako to start it off:

• Information Design Patterns (http://niceone.org/infodesign/)
• Flowing Data: Data Visualization Blogs You Might Not Know About  (http://flowingdata.com/2008/04/15/data-visualization-blogs-you-might-not-know-about/)
• Random Etc: Data Visualisation Blogs You Might Not Know About (http://www.tom-carden.co.uk/2008/04/16/data-visualisation-blogs-you-might-not-know-about/)

Found some more on Bill Morein's weblog (http://blogs.msdn.com/wmorein/)! His Data Visualization (http://blogs.msdn.com/wmorein/archive/tags/Data+Visualization/default.aspx) tag will get you there fast, but I copied some here:

Periodic Table of Visualization Methods (http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html) This one will suck you in so much, you won't get to the others!  :D

If you escape the periodic table, then Coding Horror will surely suck you in with: Catalogs of Data Visualization (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000926.html)

Lots o' links to tree-map related sites on Loose Wire's: A Directory of Visualizing Tools (http://www.loosewireblog.com/2006/04/a_directory_of_.html).

Life-sciences related graphics on the Samb Business Intelligence Blog (http://sambbiblog.spaces.live.com/). You gotta dig the Gene Expression Map Demo (http://sambbiblog.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!794708049C7AE9C2!1386.entry), even if you don't understand it!

This site looks really cool, and complicated: Visual Complexity (http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/)

I can't wait to get more time to explore it.

Manuel Lima is the man behind the site, and states his goal for the site as:

Quote
VisualComplexity.com intends to be a unified resource space for anyone interested in the visualization of complex networks. The project's main goal is to leverage a critical understanding of different visualization methods, across a series of disciplines, as diverse as Biology, Social Networks or the World Wide Web. I truly hope this space can inspire, motivate and enlighten any person doing research on this field.

The site seems to focus on visualization techniques, and particularly tracks projects around the globe dedicated to working on specific graphical problems.

The front page of the site is worth a look just for its organization and thumbnail hints at what's going out in visualization land!

Here are three infographic videos in isometric glory made by Superfad (http://superfad.com/ (http://superfad.com/)) you may enjoy:

Sprint Ad infographic: http://superfad.com/player.php?project=157&item=295 (http://superfad.com/player.php?project=157&item=295)
Sprint Katrina ad infographic: http://superfad.com/player.php?project=157&item=294 (http://superfad.com/player.php?project=157&item=294)
Sprint AAA ad video infographic: http://superfad.com/player.php?project=157&page=1 (http://superfad.com/player.php?project=157&page=1)

found on http://coolinfographics.blogspot.com/ (http://coolinfographics.blogspot.com/) via http://infosthetics.com/archives/2008/05/sprint_infographic_advertisement.html (http://infosthetics.com/archives/2008/05/sprint_infographic_advertisement.html)

reminded me of the work of Chad Pugh, http://www.vimeo.com/927062 (http://www.vimeo.com/927062)

and some other related videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBvaHZIrt0o (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBvaHZIrt0o)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rk7G8b-XDc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rk7G8b-XDc)

This website is pretty cool, and has lots of interesting, visualized statistics about the USA: Understanding USA (http://www.understandingusa.com/)

The thing is also available in book form, for those that love paper and hate trees: Richard Saul Wurman's Understanding USA (http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=Understanding%20USA&tag=wanderkind-20&index=blended&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325)


I guess this thing is a brick, and would look real good on your coffee table. But it's also expensive, so it might look better on your company's coffee table instead!  ;D

Interesting data visualization: http://xach.com/moviecharts/2008.html (http://xach.com/moviecharts/2008.html)

Found via: http://www.typography.com/ask/showBlog.php?blogID=126 (http://www.typography.com/ask/showBlog.php?blogID=126)

Interesting to compare to http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/23/movies/20080223_REVENUE_GRAPHIC.html (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/23/movies/20080223_REVENUE_GRAPHIC.html)

Um...COOL.

I need to start a different web site. This is what I'd rather be doing :)

Those look really nifty. Could we do something like this in Visio ?

This site is kind of funny. It attempts to put graphics to pseudo-statistics about pop-culture and things that aren't really all that measurable. All in an attempt to make you laugh, or at least "go hmmmm...":

http://graphjam.com/

here is another one along those same lines: http://indexed.blogspot.com/

Re: Indexed, have a look at this new Visio Guy article:

'Indexed' Shapes – for that Hand-drawn Look  (http://www.visguy.com/2008/08/20/indexed-shapes-for-that-hand-drawn-look/)

:)

Some pretty wild and creative stuff on Visual Think Map (http://visualthinkmap.ning.com/), where they "Exploring creative innovative modes of visual communication of information."

In other words, go have a look and a wonder!

I stumbled over this one:
http://richworks.in/2010/04/50-most-stunning-examples-of-data-visualization-and-infographics/

Many old stuff, but also new ones.
Enjoy

I like this paper on why there are too many circular data visualizations and why they are bad. Always nice to poke fun at the hipsters and their style-over-substance excesses! :)

This should take you to a search results page, where you can download a PDF. There doesn't seem to be a published web page, just the document, which is worth a read:

Our Irresistible Fascination with All Things Circular (http://www.perceptualedge.com/search.php?query=Our+Irresistible+Fascination+with+All+Things+Circular&sa=Go)

without much comments...
http://www.lateformass.com/2010/06/whats-most-likely-to-kill-you/

Numbers and graphics.

Oooh, that might a nice little VBA macro/article. What are the chances that I get it published...soon?

Can I answer that it depends on how good you avoid the dangers cited in the article?
No, I can't. That's too bad taste.  ;)

Interesting look at Row, Row, Row Your Boat, done as a round:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWXtwk-HK6g&feature=related

As fan of J.S.Bach I can only reply by:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipzR9bhei_o&feature=channel

I've seen this visiualisation many times before and spent hours watching it - especially pieces fron Bach, for their many voices get a geometrical dimension in which they seem to dance and enhance the feeling of their complexity and at the same time unwind it.

I've never thought to bring this visualisation in relation with Visio - thank you for the idea. There's so much potential in it.

First, one could think of drawing automatically music from Midi files.
In a second thought you could consider composing music by means of graphs.

... and not directly related to this matter, here a very nice idea: computer generated music by a system taught to respond to the feedback of it's listener:
http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/2/26/meet-emily-howell-artificial-composer

Saugeil Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor. One of my favorite pieces of music, I used to spend hours on the piano trying to play bits of it (I'm a trombone player, one note at a time is enough, so this was challenging!)

Apropos trombone playing, I found this visualization of a brass choir piece from Gabrieli:

Gabrieli, Canzon per sonare no. 2, brass choir, animated score  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8dt7q0zEp4)

Although Visio probably isn't the tool for such things, this one looks very Visio-like!

http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1002/almighty-dollar/flat.html

http://insideria.com/2009/12/28-rich-data-visualization-too.html
http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html

I spent the evening till deep in the night watching these magnificent graphs and diagrams.
https://github.com/mbostock/d3/wiki/Gallery

They are done with D3 in Java.
http://d3js.org/

Very inspiring, isn't it?

I bought a D3 book (http://bit.ly/vgamzn-d3js) and am dreaming of having the free time and discipline to be able to apply it to SVG Visio exports in some useful, cool and profitable way. :)

I look forward to seeing the result.  :)

I have started an experimental Visio publishing site (uses D3)

You can take a look at it here:
http://vispublish.azurewebsites.net/

You can download the add-in, and combine D3 with Visio diagrams (you can edit the d3 javascript code directly in Visio).
You can assign IDs to Visio shapes to be able to access them via the javascript.
This is currently in progress (when I have time).

May be interesting:
- Works for smartphones (touch)
- Works with Firefox/Chrome/IE
- Supports pages.
- Supports data (hyperlinks, etc) - Top right panel (star), Ctrl+Click
- Supports custom scripts (D3 & Jquery)
- Supports tooltips & popups
- Local export of SVG files (with proper ids)

Some sample animations:

555 from Visio Guy - the timer is clickable! :)
http://vispublish.azurewebsites.net/Diagram/Show/155918c8-64f4-40a1-8c63-d09d7d65b728

Known story, but just in case (items are clickable):
http://vispublish.azurewebsites.net/Diagram/Show/2ce45e71-0f31-495a-849e-049229e3658a

Database diagram (all linked tables are highlighted automatically when you click a table)
http://vispublish.azurewebsites.net/Diagram/Show/c9a167dd-0d37-424e-a6b0-b009818e04b2

Kino (seats are clickable):
http://vispublish.azurewebsites.net/Diagram/Show/e9a475b8-2135-483c-9635-f411619e6ede

Old Visio sample (clic on the star "*" in the top left right corner)
http://vispublish.azurewebsites.net/Diagram/Show/6d6bb81b-0daa-46c2-862b-8127b7e3c700

In visio, you get this:
(http://content.screencast.com/users/nbelyh/folders/Snagit/media/3d566fad-4aaf-4b20-8109-92099c5f8fd9/12.23.2014-14.55.png)

And this "control panel" where you can set up the javascript (or auto-java script for links/properties):
(http://content.screencast.com/users/nbelyh/folders/Snagit/media/848ac596-1232-44fc-9a04-b5ed281b0c69/12.23.2014-14.57.png)

Anyways, now it is in progress.. So the details on how/where is not yet done ...

Nikolay, Du alter Fuchs!
Very nice.

Quote from: Yacine on December 23, 2014, 04:49:41 PM
Nikolay, Du alter Fuchs!
Very nice.

+1

A nice information visualisation: http://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2013/03/26/the-shapes-of-stories-by-kurt-vonnegut/