What is Information Visualization, anyway?

Information visualization (infoVis) is the presentation of abstract data in the form of images. Usually these visualizations are designed to make it easier to understand abstract data. This is done by taking advantage of our powerful visual systems. A lot of the processing in the brain is dedicated to making sense of what our eyes see. Without even thinking about it, our brains are determining the position of objects, evaluating objects' sizes, colours, and shapes, and looking for patterns. Visualization uses images that utilize these processes.

For example, say we have a large website and we want to find the different paths that lead users to a particular page. It would be impossible to memorize all the links between the different web pages and gain an understanding of the structure of the website. However, using information visualization, the data could be presented in a way that makes it easy to see the website structure. The visualization could even be used to emphasize high traffic areas or alert the observer to dead-end pages.

Information visualization isn't only used for complex data like the structure of a corporate website. The data can be very simple: the battery life indicator on a cell phone is an example of visualization. In fact, you probably encounter many examples of visualization in every day life: speedometers, file folder hierarchies, subway maps, and animations in news weather reports. Information visualization isn't reserved for any particular type of data either. Music players often have visualizations which process audio data.

Now that you know what information visualization is, check out some examples in the top 10 information visualizations on the web.