Data Visualization

For a long time I’ve been interested in infographics. More recently I’m finding myself increasingly interested in data visualization. I don’t currently have the time to study any programming necessary for manipulating data, so I turned my attention to something I do know about – identifying and using freely available online services. So for the last couple of days I’ve been looking at what’s available, and here are some of my findings.

I’ll start with Tableau Public. On the site there’s free software to download, and the video provides an excellent introduction to the capabilities of the software and service. It’s simply a case of importing your data set and using the intuitive and straightforward operations of the software to quickly create visual representations of the data for easy interpretation. But that’s not all. You can now upload the graph, or map, or dashboard to the web onto the Tableau Software server. From there you can access it and embed it into a blog or elsewhere. But the information is served live, so it’s interactive, therefore the readers and other users of the information can manipulate the representation to narrow an area of the data, to target specific information of interest; heck, they can even embed it into their own blog and distribute the information more widely. The fact that the Wall Street Journal and UNESCO have used it to illustrate points from raw data has to speak volumes. I’ll certainly be using it in earnest from now on.

Another service to consider is Widgenie. This is a completely online service that allows you to create five types of graphical output. There is a very useful realtime representation of the graph alongside the creation ‘wizard’. Once you’ve finished creating your ‘widget’ you can then link to the graph for example to give co-workers access, you can publish to your iGoogle desktop, or you can embed it using the supplied code into a blog or webpage. There are some useful instructional video screencasts to help you get started.

Finally, if you are wanting to study some existing data sets, relating to the UK ecomomy for example, I’d suggest having a look at Timetric. Here you can view graphs, and manipulate the data, adding in additional elements from a series to compare the data graphically. Here’s the Retail Price Index, UK: average prices of the basket of goods used as an example.

eyePlorer – graphical knowledge engine

eyePlorer is an interesting alternative to the usual approach taken by many when looking for information. Instead of using a search engine to produce a series of unrelated links; eyePlorer is a ‘knowledge engine’ designed to use semantic associations and provide a richer experience of interconnected knowledge. This would seem to have useful applications for education throughout the subject disciplines. And as a student it is useful when studying a topic, or writing an essay, to check that you have covered relevant and related areas to demonstrate a fuller understanding; eyePlorer would therefore seem to be a useful way to explore a topic.

The returned content from a topic search is displayed in an elegant graphical interface. There are plenty of features to get your head around with the eyePlorer interface, most or which are quite intuitive, and I’m pretty sure I won’t cover them all, but it’s worth taking a look at this video:

The circular graphic display is segmented into separate topic areas, with information falling into each of the categories. Alongside each information term or phrase is a dot, and the size of these dots indicates whether the information is well known (larger dots) or more obscure information (smaller dots). You can hover over each term/phrase and after a couple of seconds a knowledge box opens providing you with sourced information. Click on the information in the knowledge box and the page with the source of the information opens up within eyePlorer. Note: to get back to your eyePlorer graph, click the Back button at the top centre of the eyePlorer screen.

Across the top of the knowledge box are four tabs. The tab you’re currently in is the eyePlorer facts. The other three are Websearch (powered by Bing), Images (also powered by Bing), and Twitter.

If you want to investigate any of the items (terms/phrases) in your existing eyePlorer graph, you simply drag the item into a blank search term box or onto the plus (+) below the search term. This creates a new graph associating the two terms, to eliminate the original term from this joint search, click the close down x next to the term. You can move between your graphs using the back < and forward > links just at the bottom left and right (respectively) of your graph.

Here is a video giving more detail. Note: some of the interface shown on the video is different to what you might see, I think there must have been software updates to the interface since the video was produced.

On the right of the + is a globe-like icon; dragging a term/phrase onto this performs a Google search for the term. Note: you have to be quite quick doing the dragging or the knowledge box opens before you get there, if this happens just click the globe icon at the bottom of the knowledge box.

When you register for a free account you get to fully use the second element of eyePlorer, the notepad. Whilst you can use the notepad without having an account, you can’t save any of this information, so it is worth registering. To add things to the notepad you simply drag them across from the graphical display.

Why should the use of eyePlorer knowledge engine be significant to you as an end user?

Well, quoting from the Vionto (the designers of the underlying software) site:

What’s in for our users:

• Associate and aggregate information from different web sites or other content sources
• Work with a user-friendly, interactive graphical interface
• Generate content overviews
• Find, process and store knowledge within a single user interface
• Gain interesting and unexpected stimuli
• Retrieve facts and text results (rather than just lists of links)

Vionto Knowledge Machines

http://www.vionto.com/lang/en/2009/01/10/knowledgemachines/

There are some quirks to using eyePlorer, and the available information resources might be a little limited for some users currently, but additional sites and resources will I believe continue to be added. I also believe the interface will continue to be improved. I think the concept is a good one and very useful, tapping into a more visual approach for knowledge retrieval, and the interlinking of knowledge – more a search for something and other related and associated content.

Another plus with eyePlorer is that you can add a spot of html into your website to include a dynamic link to eyePlorer.com for a particular search term.

Example term : Web search engine

I think eyePlorer is very much worth trying. And if it doesn’t quite meet your requirements now, possibly try it again in a few months.

Quick Info to users

Posed in response to Is there a problem?

Just had a quick thought (untried and untested).

What could be done is that various information could be aggregated; the CiCS twitter feeds, the IC twitter feed, RSS from the service page, PC availability, and pull out useful, relevant and immediate information from the HelpDesk knowledge if there is a problem.

This could be aggregated using something like FriendFeed or an online portal (say Netvibes or Pageflakes). The URL can be provided to all users for them to access directly and the aggregation displayed on the plasma screens in the IC and elsewhere.

Given the time, I’ll mock something up.