How to Present Information

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How to Present Information

• Christine Robson
• October 25, 2007

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Topics

• Human Perception- Quick Review
• Presenting Information
• Visualizations

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Quick ReviewHuman Perception
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Stage Theory of Human Perception Memory
maintenance rehearsal
Sensory Image Store
WorkingMemory
Long Term Memory
Sensory Image Store
WorkingMemory
Long Term Memory
elaboration
decay
decay,displacement
decay? interference?

• Working Memory
• Small capacity
• 7 /- 2 chunks
• Long Term Memory
• Huge capacity

• Short Term
• Visual information store
• Auditory information store
• Pre-attentive Processing

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Recall vs. Recognition

• Two main ways we access memory
• Recognition
• when provided with a cue to the information in
  memory
• eg. feeling of familiarity, matching, multiple.
  choice, True/False on exams, recognizing someone
  you know...
• Recall
• drawing the information from memory without (or
  with minimal) cues.
• eg. coming up with the name for person you
  recognized, remembering what command to type,
  fill-in-the-blank on exams.

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Presenting Information
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PresentInformation

• Sibley Guide To Birds
• Lots of Data
• Many types ofInformation
• Yet succinct

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Train Schedules
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Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
http//www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/peri
odic_table.html
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Tables are great!
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Chartjunk

• The interior decoration of graphics generates
  a lot of ink that does not tell the viewer
  anything new. The purpose of decoration varies
  to make the graphic appear more scientific and
  precise, to enliven the display, to give the
  designer an opportunity to exercise artistic
  skills. Regardless of its cause, it is all
  non-data-ink or redundant data-ink, and it is
  often chartjunk.
• Edward Tufte
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.

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Chartjunk
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Automatic Charts in Excel
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Informationthat matters
Edward Tufte
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Informationthat matters

• Edward
• Tufte
• Automatic
• PPT Charts

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Informationthat matters
Edward Tufte Without the chartjunk
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Data-Ink Maximization

• Tufte defines two types of ink used to construct
  a graph
• data-ink - the essential non-erasable ink used to
  present the data
• non-data-ink - the redundant ink used to
  elaborate or decorate the graph
• The Data-Ink Ratio is defined as the percentage
  (100 x Data-ink) / (Total ink used on graphic)

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Minards Map of Napoleon's March
Map by Charles Joseph Minard portrays the losses
suffered by Napoleon's army in the Russian
campaign of 1812
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Lots of Information

• Beginning at the Polish-Russian border, the thick
  band shows the size of the army at each position
• The path of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in the
  bitterly cold winter is depicted by the dark
  lower band, which is tied to temperature and time
  scales.

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Sparklines Edward Tufte

• data-intense, design-simple, word-sized graphics
• small, high resolution graphics embedded in a
  context of words, numbers, images

SparklinesU.S. stock market activity (February 7, 2006) SparklinesU.S. stock market activity (February 7, 2006) SparklinesU.S. stock market activity (February 7, 2006) SparklinesU.S. stock market activity (February 7, 2006) SparklinesU.S. stock market activity (February 7, 2006)
Index Day Value Value Change
Dow Jones                                                           10765.45 -32.82 (-0.30)
SP 500                                                           1256.92 -8.10 (-0.64)
Nasdaq                                                           2244.83 -13.97 (-0.62)
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Visualization
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Assembly Diagrams
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Protein Folding
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Company Relationships
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Networks of relationshipsfrom the web
OPEC Ministers and Large Companies
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Web topics relating to autos
Honda and Toyota are the most frequently
discussed Honda fuel economy GM New models
and future plans HEVs and SUVs Ford
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Visualizing Network Traffic
Walrus http//www.caida.org/tools/visualization/w
alrus/gallery1/
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Grokker

• web-based enterprise search management platform
• leverages the power of federated content access
  and visualization to maximize the value of
  information assets for enterprises, content
  publishers, libraries and other
  research-intensive organizations
• From Grokker.com

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Gap Minder (Google)

• Hans Roslings 2007 TED Talk
• Software to visualise human development
• Non-profit venture
• http//www.gapminder.org/

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Nuts Bolts
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Facebook Causes AppGuest Lecture Nov 6th

• Sean Parker
• Chairman of Project Agape
• Managing Partner at The Founders Fund
• Co-founder of Napster, Plaxo, and Facebook
•  
• Joe Green
• CEO co-founder of Project Agape
• founder and former CEO of essembly.com
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• Chris Chan
• Facebook Causes Application Product Manager
• Designer and Product Manager at essembly.com 

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Readings

• Olympic Message System for Tuesday, in Google
  Group
• Chapters from Tufte up on the Google Group

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Exams Back

• If youd like us to explain your score on a
  question, set up a meeting (email us)
• Question 1,2,4,6 Christine
• Question 3,5 John
• Our policy on disputed grades is to re-grade your
  entire exam

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Grade Summary

• Summary page of all your grades
• Please check for discrepancies