The Affectivness of Information Visualization on Decision Making and Understanding
THE AFFECTIVNESS OF INFORMATION
VISUALIZATION ON DECISION MAKING AND UNDERSTANDING
INTRODUCTION
With today’s complex ideas and situations individuals need tools to succeed. With the help of information visualization individuals can see information visually improving their chance for success while increasing their understanding of the information. This report will look into the history, types, usage and benefits of information visualization.
History of Information Visualization
Information visualization is the use of images to represent data (Few 2). Information visualization goes as far back as the 2nd century. Egyptians used information visualization, specifically a table, to organize astronomical configurations to make navigation easier (Few 2). The next big step in information visualization was graphs. Graphs weren’t created until the 17th century by the French philosopher and mathematician Rene Decartes. Rene Decartes invented a mathematic way to represent quantitative data based on a system of coordinates (Few 3). The types of graphs that Rene Decartes created aren’t the graphs that today’s society are accustom to. It wasn’t until the late 18th and early 19th century when a Scottish social scientist by the name of William Playfair created the type of graphs, bar charts, and pie charts that we are accustom to today (Few 3). The next big step in information visualization history took place in 1977 when John Tukey, a statistics professor at Princeton University, introduced the use of information visualization as means of exploring and making sense of data (Few 3). One of the final big advancements for information visualization came from the creation of computers. Software programs have created programs that help create multiple types of information visualization, some of which will be discuss later in this report. These programs allow information visualizations to be created much easier and faster than traditional methods. This ease of creation has
VISUALIZATION ON DECISION MAKING AND UNDERSTANDING
INTRODUCTION
With today’s complex ideas and situations individuals need tools to succeed. With the help of information visualization individuals can see information visually improving their chance for success while increasing their understanding of the information. This report will look into the history, types, usage and benefits of information visualization.
History of Information Visualization
Information visualization is the use of images to represent data (Few 2). Information visualization goes as far back as the 2nd century. Egyptians used information visualization, specifically a table, to organize astronomical configurations to make navigation easier (Few 2). The next big step in information visualization was graphs. Graphs weren’t created until the 17th century by the French philosopher and mathematician Rene Decartes. Rene Decartes invented a mathematic way to represent quantitative data based on a system of coordinates (Few 3). The types of graphs that Rene Decartes created aren’t the graphs that today’s society are accustom to. It wasn’t until the late 18th and early 19th century when a Scottish social scientist by the name of William Playfair created the type of graphs, bar charts, and pie charts that we are accustom to today (Few 3). The next big step in information visualization history took place in 1977 when John Tukey, a statistics professor at Princeton University, introduced the use of information visualization as means of exploring and making sense of data (Few 3). One of the final big advancements for information visualization came from the creation of computers. Software programs have created programs that help create multiple types of information visualization, some of which will be discuss later in this report. These programs allow information visualizations to be created much easier and faster than traditional methods. This ease of creation has