Talk:Data Visualization

Data Visualization vs. Information Visualization

What are the differences between DataVis and InfoVis? Yijisoo

Hard question

Wohoo - that's the one million dollar question I was thinking about many times ;-)

I've found no definition in literature that would point out the differences between the two terms. Anyways, I tried to differentiate the two terms by means of needed semantics for meaningful visualizations:

Data Visualization: Visualization techniques for data represent a set of parameters over time graphically whereas no semantics are needed in order to create a meaningful visualization (e.g., Scatterplot). This also includes simple processing on raw data that do not require semantics (derived data; e.g., Histogram, Boxplot, mean, other statistical measures, clustering, etc.). Furthermore, data visualization techniques are often of static nature.

Information Visualization: In contrast to the previous class, visualization techniques for information need semantics, i.e., the meaning of different parameters and their interrelationships or structure are important in order to create a meaningful representation (e.g., InfoBUG glyph).

What do you think about this definitions?

-- Wolfgang Aigner 09:43, 6 June 2006 (CEST)