Data Visualization
Data visualization is the process of using graphical presentation to represent complex data in a way that provides the viewer with a qualitative understanding of its information contents, turning complicated sets of data into visual insights.
[Bhargava, 2003]
... the science of visual representation of “data”, defined as information which has been abstracted in some schematic form, including attributes or variables for the units of information.
[Friendly and Denis, 2004]
Comparisions with other terms
Information visualization is the broadest term that could be taken to subsume all the developments described here. At this level, almost anything, if sufficiently organized, is information of a sort. ... scientific visualization ... is primarily concerned with the visualization of 3-D+ phenomena (architectural, meterological, medical, biological, etc.), where the emphasis is on realistic renderings of volumes, surfaces, illumination sources, and so forth, perhaps with a dynamic (time) component. Instead, we focus on the slightly narrower domain of data visualization, the science of visual representation of "data", defined as information which has been abstracted in some schematic form ...
[Friendly and Denis, 2004]
References
- [Bhargava, 2003]: Bharat Bhargava, Data Visualization Overview, 2003.
- [Friendly and Denis, 2004]: Michael Friendly and Daniel J. Denis, Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, statistical graphics, and data visualization, April 14, 2004. http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery/milestone/