Questions tagged [info-visualisation]
Any technique for creating images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message.
528
questions
130
votes
19answers
36k views
Intuitive interface for Composing Boolean Logic?
I'm interested to know how people have, or would construct an interface which simplifies constructing logical boolean conditions? (Yes, it's a database query builder) In my mind a bad interface has ...
75
votes
20answers
4k views
How can I keep up-to-date with the latest thinking about designing complex, rich applications?
I am designing a very complex eco-system of apps.
I like to make sure I am up-to-date with the latest thinking, research and trends in app and UI/UX design. I find that there are many great articles, ...
73
votes
5answers
5k views
Why are election results presented by a geographic map instead of a cartogram map?
This morning (in Sweden) I woke up early to watch the 2012 presidential election in United States. I watched different news sources but all of them presented a geographical map of the results instead ...
69
votes
12answers
8k views
Does visual design really affect UX?
I am really concerned about the effects of visual design on user experience, but as this may seem too broad, let me clarify it a little.
My statement is that, if the user can find the information he ...
59
votes
10answers
14k views
Should a pie chart show the legend for a wedge with 0%?
I and my colleague have a difference of opinion.
We are creating a chart of, lets say, fruits. Like this one:
But what if the value of oranges is 0%? Do we show the legend anyway? Like this:
Or ...
53
votes
8answers
3k views
Should I fill empty space in bars?
It's about bar-charts in a table.
Every row has a bar, which visualises a value of the row.
The biggest value of the whole table is the maximum of the bars and not necessarily on the same table-page....
48
votes
11answers
10k views
Is it bad practice to use “Lorem Ipsum” example text in a text-preferences screen?
I'm the developer of an application where text plays a major role in the user interface. Users can adjust the style of the text in a preference screen. I have added an example text to the preference ...
47
votes
10answers
5k views
Display big numbers in a small area
I am developing an accounting app where I display several orders. Every order has a price.
I have a box where I would like to display the price as shown below:
This works pretty well for fairly ...
43
votes
8answers
3k views
What would be a good way to thumbnail audio?
I want to represent an audio file in an image with a maximum size of 180×180 pixels.
I have been thinking about something similar to what Soundcloud does, although it will require some chopping and ...
43
votes
6answers
5k views
Why is tree representation of data becoming unpopular?
I'm asking not about professional software like IDE's, but about OS GUI and web interfaces.
A few years ago there was File manager in Windows, Gopher and other interfaces and data models like this.
...
41
votes
10answers
9k views
How to visualize data with extreme value differences?
I am working on some routines for a client application to visualize data in a 3d bar chart style. The data consists mostly of smaller values with only a few large values. For example:
6,942,535,341
...
40
votes
7answers
7k views
Good way to visualize complex AND/OR query/criteria?
I'm maintaining a webapp with a feature dubbed the "rule form". It's essentially a complex HTML form that users use to build a "rule" with criteria that can be grouped into AND/OR blocks. When all the ...
32
votes
3answers
7k views
Are there any cons in using rounded corners for bar graphs?
I remember reading somewhere that bars with rounded edges may look inaccurate. But I'm not too sure about it. Can someone throw some light on this?
31
votes
5answers
32k views
What is a good icon for illustrating expand (and collapse) all? [closed]
I'm trying to devise an icon to indicate that when it is clicked, it will collapse all the nodes in a tree. The tree contains profiles which already have an icon, so ideally I'm looking for a "...
31
votes
3answers
19k views
How many visually distinct colors can accurately be associated with a separated legend in a figure?
For charts and graphs it's a relatively common question by programmers to want to procedurally generate an arbitrary number of colors that are visually distinct.
Various research (or educated guesses)...
25
votes
7answers
10k views
Best way to display code to non-programmers
I'm asked to analyze the program responsible for printing our invoices. (Via SAP script)
This program is pretty old and contains more than 4.000 lines of code. It sets a lot of different variables ...
25
votes
15answers
5k views
How to build a budgeting interface (sum of items must equal 100)?
I'm trying to build a visual web interface where users can distribute a budget over some (varying) number of items. For example, if the budget is 100 points, I might allocate:
50 points to 'Apples'
...
21
votes
4answers
14k views
Best UI approach to align the column titles of reports
I would like to know what the best approach is to align header columns according to their data type.
I haven't found any Human Design Interface articles explaining this.
Should the header column ...
20
votes
4answers
4k views
Background for black and white chart
I have a plot where I stack the color white and black as values by month.
I would use white as background color but the data is black and white as the color is. I'm using blue which I don't like.
Any ...
19
votes
2answers
1k views
Interface for Data Brushing
For an interactive graph I'm using a UX pattern called Data Brushing. My starting point is a d3js example by Mike Bostock.
This is what it looks like in its initial state:
The smaller graph below ...
19
votes
3answers
1k views
How to show progress towards goal?
On our intranet we display some numbers for our employees so they can keep track of their performance goals. Currently it's just a table.
We'd like something more visual, and this was the first ...
19
votes
6answers
2k views
How to represent an X/Y mood data to a user within a very small space (32x32)?
I'm building a mood tracker app for iPhone and am running into a user experience issue - I would like users to be able to track their moods, along with other events in a vertical "history".
The mood ...
18
votes
4answers
3k views
What is the gender implied by this infographic person
I was wondering if there is a rule/guide on if this info graphic person actually implies male/female - assuming it is used without the opposing specifically female human graphic
17
votes
8answers
3k views
Making a Streak Visualization More Intuitive
I'm currently working on a website for tracking habit change. On the report page, I have goal cards users interact with in order to record their progress:
The donut chart in this example is trying to ...
16
votes
4answers
6k views
Good ways to handle precisely overlapping data points in a graph?
In an application, I have a graph of markers--either with or without connecting lines--in which it is possible to have data points, and therefore markers, that are at the exact same location, even if ...
16
votes
3answers
7k views
Ways to visualise a user journey
I would like some opinions on user journeys and how to present them, specifically to the client. What do you think is the best way to present them and what tools would you use to create them?
Do you ...
15
votes
4answers
3k views
How best to show server availability over a 24 hour period?
I have a customer who asked me to provide a "Server Availability" chart for the last 24 hours that looks like this one:
Y represents hours (0 - 23); X represents minutes (0 - 59)
In this example you ...
15
votes
3answers
2k views
How to best visually represent a dev team's skillset versus project needs?
I need to visually represent a dev team's skill set (and proficiency) against a project portfolio's required skill set. I have two separate tables, one for team members, and one for projects.
Here is ...
15
votes
1answer
1k views
Tufte's data density, readability and comparison
I'm intrigued by Tufte's data density. While I love his definition of data / ink ratio which can be easily measured, I have hard time measuring data density.
He defines data density in a graphic as a ...
14
votes
12answers
28k views
Honest way to show your skills in Portfolio
So i have started seeing this a lot in portfolios of designers.
This person has a title that says "My Skills",
and at the bottom are bar graphs that are in percentages.
So I asked this question - "...
14
votes
4answers
1k views
How to visualize data when one data series is significantly bigger than the others
I'm working on visualizing some data and it turns out that there are cases where one "data set" is significantly bigger (in terms of values) than the rest. It probably needs to be barchart as I don't ...
14
votes
5answers
5k views
How to cluster map markers with different statuses
We're designing an application that displays a large number of markers on a map. We need to do some clustering on these markers, but the problem is that each marker has four possible options for ...
14
votes
3answers
2k views
Chart drill-down affordance?
I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for improving the usability of chart drill-down?
More specifically, imagine we have a bar chart (or any other visualization) where a user is able to select ...
13
votes
7answers
597 views
Is there a visual way to represent drag capability?
In this data visualization chart, we wanted to make user understand that the chart is interactive.
When someone clicks and drags any point, the selection expands. This helps drilling down in the data....
13
votes
6answers
513 views
How to present weighted values
I have a formula which is used to calculate certain scores. The formula has some parameters (shown in the image below) including a Weight parameter that is changed dynamically (the rest of the inputs ...
13
votes
13answers
4k views
How do you visually represent “progress” on a negative (lower is better) goal?
I may have some terminology wrong but I think the idea is sound.
There are a variety of ways to represent progress when you are increasing a number and trying to get to some set number. Usually you'...
13
votes
5answers
897 views
What are techniques for showing a future state on an empty dashboard?
I am working on a new web application that will have a user dashboard displaying lots of great information with charts, notifications, alerts, etc. The actual data populating the charts will not be ...
12
votes
4answers
9k views
What is the best way to visually present a sitemap?
Do you know which are the common patterns for a graphical representation of a sitemap?
11
votes
5answers
2k views
Making color blind friendly plots that look professional
Based on this question I've been racking my brain trying to find a color scheme for journal publications that is color blind friendly and that I actually like. I've tried color brewer and other sites, ...
11
votes
5answers
685 views
How best to show the 'weight' (importance) of bullet-ed items in a non-intrusive (creative) way?
I have a web page with a bulleted list of items each with an associated weight i.e. level of importance. The bullets are of equal width but not necessarily of equal height. Here's a graphical ...
11
votes
4answers
7k views
Tabular vs Card-based presentation, which is better for lots of data?
Basically, we have a long list of stuff that has, on its on, a lot of details. We are wondering whether to use a table or put each set in a rectangular card format. See below:
On one hand, the table ...
11
votes
5answers
1k views
graph exploration and data overload
I love to visualize huge graphs (this is a hobby: http://anvaka.github.io/pm/ ). One problem however that keeps me awake at night, is data overload in such graphs.
If I render all connections inside ...
10
votes
3answers
2k views
Graph with overlapping labels
I have a web app that builds and displays a bar chart based on dollar amounts. A typical graph looks something like this:
As you can see, the layers at the bottom of the graph have dollar amounts ...
10
votes
4answers
417 views
Does “ink is expensive” apply in a user interface context?
Edward Tufte in the book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information states, more or less, that ink is expensive. Any ink which is not used to actually convey information is chartjunk and it will ...
10
votes
7answers
336 views
How do you decide whether additional information is harmful?
In any primary user interface screen, a designer must find a balance between too little and too much information.
Often, adding additional status information is cheap, technically. Therefore, some (...
10
votes
5answers
4k views
What is the best way to graphically display item's position in a ranking?
My app has a table containing a list of financial securities. One of the columns is the security's position in a list of all available securities ranked by performance.
For example: security XYZ is ...
10
votes
4answers
2k views
Alternative graphical representation of a goal achievement?
The client has a set goal X that he wants to achieve every month and he wants this represented graphically and I agree that it would be a good way for people to easily see how far along they are.
The ...
10
votes
2answers
710 views
Best way to present time durations in a list?
We have a list of items, with one of the attributes being a time duration. (Imagine users, and avg time between certain activities).
Most of the time, this duration will be in the 0->120 second range....
10
votes
5answers
593 views
Reference books for data visualisation and dashboard design [closed]
Please could you recommend some reference texts or other resources concerned with business data visualisation and dashboard design.
There's Information Dashboard Design by Stephen Few on Amazon but ...
10
votes
3answers
325 views
Reputation Scoring Signals
My Question:
How is the UX of the best, or any, web reputation systems capturing and
representing offline influence within a community?
What are the signals that are quantified or illuminated in ...
