| dc.description.abstract | Data visualization concerns the communication of data through visual representations and
techniques. It aims at enhancing perception and support data-driven decision making so
enabling insights otherwise hard to achieve. A good visualization of data makes it possible
to identify patterns and enables better understanding of phenomena. In other words, data
visualization is related to an innate human ability to quickly comprehend, discern and
convert patterns into useful and usable information.
Humans have used visual graphical representations as early as 35.000 B.C., through
cave drawings. Indeed, human ancestors already reasoned in terms of models or schemata:
the visual representation of information is an ancient concept, as witnessed by the rock
carvings found. Over the centuries, information visualization has evolved to take into
account the changing human needs and its use has become more and more conscious. The
first data visualization techniques have been developed to observe and represent physical
quantities, geography and celestial positions. Successively, the combined use of euclidean
geometry and algebra improved accuracy and complexity of information representation, in
different fields, such as astronomy, physics and engineering. Finally, in the last century
most modern forms of data representations were invented: starting from charts, histograms,
and graphs up to high dimensional data, and dynamic and interactive visualizations of
temporal data [41].
Nowadays, the huge amount of information enables more precise interpretation of phenomena
so fostering the adoption of infographic techniques, in particular, for supporting
managerial decision-making in the business area... [edited by author] | it_IT |
