A Brief History of Data Visualization

The School of Visual Arts (SVA) is playing host to a short course by Shawn Allen on data visualization.  It’s just begun, and the first entry is a brief history of Data Visualization.

Data visualization is a pretty literal term that means, quite simply, the visual representation of quantitative data. In this course we’ll learn common techniques for visualizing data, as well as some strategies for managing information digitally. But first, a brief history.

It begins with the first charts by William Playfair, and goes through modern inventions like IBM ManyEyes and Google Fusion.  After some history, it goes through the usual ‘What is Data’ and various types of charts and data formats.

Worth a read, even for the seasoned veteran.

via Introduction.

This story written by Randall Hand

Randall Hand is a visualization scientist working for a federal research lab, aiding researchers to discover the insights buried within their terabyte datasets generated on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. He also runs VizWorld.com .