ABSTRACT
Visualizing data brings quantities, forms and relationships into view when the subject matter is minuscule or distant, abstract or intangible, transient or multiscale. Visualizing data can be essential to making sense of data by enabling discoveries and increased understanding. As a new 'photojournalism', visualizing data can reveal unseen issues; such as when a humble chart catalysed the creation of the Bill and Melinda Gates' foundation – 'that rotavirus slice in the pie chart set us on fire'. Visualizations are often described by the constraints from which they were designed, such as the resources to be used, the tasks to be enabled and the context of use. Many books assist the craft of visualizing data, by suggesting how to visualize data effectively using different coordinate systems, visual encodings, patterns of emphasis and data manipulations. Novel interdisciplinary approaches are undoubtedly needed to look out from Design Space, into this spectrum, with the aim of developing a 2020 view of visualizing data.
