Visualizations

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Visual analytics can transform qualitative and quantitative information into singular graphics and figures that convey complex patterns, relationships, and contexts. Adding a spatial dimension to the presentation of data can enable a greater understanding of concepts, ideas and theories by engaging our visual pattern recognition and spatial reasoning abilities (Risch, Kao, Poteet & Wu 2008). In addition, visuals reduce the complex cognitive requirements for processing information and enhance our ability for synthesizing data and gaining insights on its meaning and / or implications (Keim, Mansmann, Schneidewind, Thomas, & Ziegler, 2008).

As we explore the meaning of sustainable community development, the complexities of relationships between individuals, community and environment present challenges in terms of determining exactly what contributes to sustainable futures. Through engaging in visual analytics, we capture these complexities and gain new insights on how to progress in a manner conducive to long-term well-being of people and planet.

Our work in visuals include trend analysis, mind mapping, meta-analysis of CRC case studies and e-Dialogues, and development of new methodologies for creating visuals from data. Click on the spheres below to explore our visuals and to gain insights on the complexities of sustainable community development.



Keim, D. A., Mansmann, F., Schneidewind, J., Thomas, J., & Ziegler, H. (2008). Visual analytics: Scope and challenges (pp. 76-90). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Risch, J., Kao, A., Poteet, S. R., & Wu, Y. J. J. (2008). Text visualization for visual text analytics. In Visual Data Mining (pp. 154-171). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.