Author: Zen and the Art of Computer Programming
Introduction to data visualization
Data Visualization, also known as information visualization or chart drawing, uses images, lines and text to graphically present data to users to help users better understand, analyze and process data. Data visualization has many advantages, the most prominent ones are:
- The visual graphics are clear and easy to read and display the data intuitively.
- Through visual presentation, regularities and outliers in the data can be well revealed, providing an important basis for data analysis and decision-making.
- The effect of data visualization can be improved through animation and interaction.
When is data visualization needed?
There are many application scenarios for data visualization. Here are a few typical application scenarios:
- Financial industry: financial statements, market trends, investor expectations for products and services.
- Manufacturing industry: production process data monitoring, machine failure warning, process optimization efficiency.
- Automotive industry: overall vehicle performance evaluation, vehicle condition and health analysis, and driving comfort investigation.
- Telecommunications industry: network operation status data analysis, business operation status ranking, customer churn prediction.
Data visualization is also often used as an aid to explore data. During the exploration process, data visualization can help users discover patterns and relationships hidden in the data, thereby finding more valuable insights.
Why do data visualization?
As an emerging technology, data visualization emerges mainly due to the following reasons:
- With the increasing amount of data, traditional static charts cannot meet the demand.
- Users’ requirements for rapid response to data have increased.
- More complex analysis methods require novel visualization techniques to support them.
Therefore, one of the core tasks of data visualization is