A Peridoic Table of Visualization Methods

Swiss researchers Ralph Lengler & Martin J. Eppler from the Institute of Corporate Communication (how cool is that!) at the University of Lugano have created a “periodic table” of 100 visualization methods. They describe their table in their 2007 research paper Towards A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods for Management

Data Visualization Periodic Table

(Click to enlarge)

The periodic table is broken down into data visualization, information visualization, concept visualization, strategy visualization, metaphor visualization, and compound visualization.

Their Visual Literacy website contains an interactive version of the table. Simply by hovering over each box in the table, an example appears in a pop-up window with an illustration of each of the elements.

Try it here.

Supply Demand CurveThe examples range from the simple supply demand curve (Su) with a X/Y axis to the complex sankey diagram (Sa) — a specific type of flow diagram in which the width of the arrows is shown proportionally to the flow quantity.Sankey Diagram

While their classification tool might offend the purists, this is a fun source of ideas for your next PowerPoint presentation. However, in terms of a tool that helps classify and solve problems while selling ideas with pictures, nothing beats Dan Roam’s excellent Visual thinking Codex from his book The Back of the Napkin:

Data Visualization Periodic Table

(Click to enlarge)

Thanks to George for letting me know about the visualization table.

2 Comments so far
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Ian:

Back in May 2011 there was an article by Luc Desnoyers in the rather obscure Technical Communication magazine titled Toward a Taxonomy of Visuals in Science Communication. You can download it for free here:
http://techcomm.stc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Taxonomy.pdf

Richard

Thanks to Edoardo L’Astorina for a comprehensive review of the 20 Best Tools for Big Data Visualization.



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