Data Visualizatoin: An Art to be Mastered

Useful data usually comes in horrendously looking abundance and in horrifying

amounts. The analysis of such data and the drawing of distinctions between what each data
implies is a task on its own. After all analysis is done and all conclusions made, a pathway to
transmit this information to either the educated and specialized recipient or to the common
man is an art that has little to do with the science behind the data itself. Our minds are very
vulnerable and affected by the subtle details in a picture or a representation; they can change
your impression of a visualization, or even perhaps change your entire inference of the data if
done properly. Many visualizations seem to just look appealing, with no concrete logical
reasoning behind why, and such is the nature of man. Certain details do push us a way, and yet
others tend pull us closer, asking us to take another look at the picture. The following data
visualization is a prime example of how data can look beautiful, an attribute that is often
disregarded in the STEM disciplines.

This map was created during a project that intended to address the past 5 years of
drought in the Southwestern U.S. The very first thing that might catch a persons eye in that
poster is the warmness of the colors used, going perfectly with the notion that the researches
are trying to perceive: drought. No colors of life were chosen, such as green or blue, but rather
colors that portray exactly the contrary, yellow deserts and red droughts. Even more impressive
was their use of dot size in order to correlate to drought frequency. In this manner, a group of
dots can hold much more information than one could ever imagine. By only taking a single
glance at the poster, the reader can already tell not only where the droughts are most severe,
but also most frequent! I can also not stress enough how much this visualization speaks for
itself. Had I been only told this is a poster about the severity of droughts in the U.S. with no key,
it would take me little to no time to figure out what each representation means and refers to.
Not only does the poster effectively communicate the findings of the research, but it also does
an equally good job at simply a giving a feel of what the results were. The smooth flow of dots
with sudden concentrated interruptions does point out to the regions in the U.S. that are
suffering.
A less impressive visualization was also employed by the same researchers in order to
tackle a slightly different angle of the conflict at hand. This poster dealt with the total flux of the
drought in the U.S. and its movement across the continent with time. Although this
visualization was by no means bad, it had plenty of factors that seemed of less appeal to me
than its predecessor. First, the use of tangled lines in order to portray drought movement was
slightly confusing. The use of tangled lines tends to tangle the viewers thoughts with them,
taking him to a maze that he must figure out on his own. I do believe those two different ways
of data visualizations do have an accurate representation of how the information is being
delivered to ones mind. The dots deliver solid, clear information to the viewer, meanwhile the
lines to take him on a journey that the common viewer is not motivated to take. I understand
the second poster was meant to delineate a more dynamic aspect, but analyzing takes much
more mental effort than the previous visualization.