Using visual analysis to find stories
The following is a quote from Ben Schneiderman:
"Visualization gives you answers to questions you didn't know you had."
In the Chapter 2, Setting the Purpose and Identifying Key Factors, we discussed the different intentions and motives you might have for developing a data visualization. In most cases we think of it as something we create and provide to others. What we sometimes neglect to consider is the potential of visualization for ourselves, when we are the intended users looking to discover insights about a subject.
This is where we consider the application of visual analysis. Visually analyzing a dataset, and employing both inductive and deductive reasoning, enables us—as the designer—to learn more about our subject by exploring a dataset from all directions.
As Ben Schneiderman articulates above, and as we saw through the demonstration of Francis Anscombe's experiment, rather than just looking at data, we are using visualization to actually see it...
