Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with visualisation

Data visualisationfor presentations

tseo — Thu, 29 May 2008 08:56:30 -0800

I am looking for some good data visualisation books, tutorials and maybe software In my work I need to present my mates with lots of statistics mostly very simple but still I always need it to be as flashier and as simpler looking as possible. I am using Excel which kind of helps but not much since I am not always sure how I want to present the info and how to do it with Excel. I've seen there are some good data visualisation apps there but are mostly for dealing with complex databases and stuff.
What I am really looking for is something to guide me, help me make better visions for my simple statistics with presentation purposes.

I see some very good examples here - .

How do I organise my college course modules into one cohesive format?

ajp — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 05:29:05 -0800

How do I organise my college course modules into one cohesive format? Help! I'm drowning in college coursework. How do I organise my course modules into one cohesive format that I can easily update, expand, and use for revision?

There are some highly specific details in this question, but it's essentially a problem of organising related but distinct information into one cross-referenced and definitive source.

I'm currently studying osteopathy, and have a huge amount of anatomical information to learn. The course is split over several modules which are roughly:

1. Structural and functional anatomy (lists of bones, muscles, joints, etc. and how they work together).

2. Dysfunction (problems that arise, currently specifically in the musculo-skeletal system, although cardio-vascular systems and other organs of the body will also be included).

3. Technique (how to detect and treat problems using manual therapy).

The fundamental problem I have is that the course is structured in such a way that I find it very hard to relate these subject areas to each other. The modules are taught separately, and although there has been a clear attempt by the faculty to integrate the subject matter, I simply don't find it cohesive enough. A "perfect" lecture for me would be one whole day studying one anatomical feature. For example, starting with anatomy of the foot, moving onto its dysfunctions, and culminating in diagnostic and treatment techniques. Timetable restrictions prevent this. We may study the anatomy of the foot one morning, but learn technique for treating the back in the afternoon. Our study notes reflect this fractured approach: we may learn about the thigh while we're in college, but be expected to "read ahead" about the bones of the pelvis concurrently.

Revision is similarly tricky. If we want to revise all techniques, that's fine. But if we want to revise "the back", and include all three modules, we have to collate notes from multiple sources. This is time-consuming, and potentially leaves us open to accidentally missing information that is buried deep in one module. I'd like to organise revision (and the notes themselves) arbitrarily, not just by module. For example, it may make sense to revise "the foot", or "muscle attachements", or "nerve supplies".

How do I organise this fractured information into one cohesive, cross-referenced format?

Pointers on where to start looking, rather than definitive solutions, will be gratefully accepted. Googling has revealed plenty of well-organised and detailed information, but I'm not looking for yet more information on the subject matter.

I'm going to start by checking out mind-mapping, so if anyone has experience of learning anatomical or medical information using mind-maps, it would be very useful. The info I need to capture from my course is a combination of detailed text, bullet-point facts, and images. Mind-maps seem good for this; any words of wisdom? I'm not entirely convinced that they will handle the cross-referencing aspect very well: I'd have to settle on a means of organising the course material - probably by anatomical feature - then maybe have standard branches from each subject, maybe one for each module. Somehow that doesn't seem "good enough" to me! I've also just found GraphViz.org which looks interesting.

Bonus points: Whatever solution I settle on, I'd ideally like to put it online in some collaborative format, so my fellow students and I can combine forces to create a definitive coursework model. I have access to a Linux web-server with Dreamhost, but of course I only have user-privileges, not admin. PHP apps will probably be fine, maybe Java. Can anyone recommend appropriate software? (I am going to ask the college faculty if they'd outline all modules as mind-maps, maybe even the entire course, but I won't hold my breath).

Apologies for the length of this question :-)

Can a visualisation technique be copyright?

London Irregular — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 04:54:22 -0800

I'd like to include a visualisation technique in my ebook, but I'm not sure if it comes under copyright. I have been doing a self help technique that involves doing a visualisation and noticing what you experience in your body. I would like to include something similar as a small part of an ebook I'm writing (to sell), but I'm not sure where I stand legally.

A lot of visualisation or relaxation techniques have the same sort of format, so if you change the details presumably there's no problem.

However, this is grounded in a specific theory that the author has developed.

I can write my own script, and don't need to mention his theory, but I'm not sure if the 'process' he has developed is under copyright or not. If the details and wording of my visualisation have all changed, but it has the same stages, could be a problem legally?

xsl:saint-augustine -- help me get to grips with XSLT

AmbroseChapel — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 15:13:41 -0800

xsl:saint-augustine -- help me get to grips with XSLT I've been making this joke for a couple of years now. "Oh Lord, help me understand XSLT ... but not yet!".

But the time has come.

Part One: can someone help me find the best material online or in a book that made XSLT really fall into place for you? Particularly if you're a coder who was at first baffled by its syntax and kept trying to understand an XSL Template in terms of traditional programming concepts like "while" and "foreach" and "select * from foo where bar = baz". I figure that's the thing that's been holding me back. I'm trying to wrestle XSL into the stuff I already know and am comfortable with.

As an example, it drives me crazy that the code doesn't nest the way I expect it to. I want it to be like



while outerloop

    while innerloop 

        while yetanotherloop

        end

    end

end

but XSLT does that "apply-templates" thing and you're roaming around the page looking for the next bit of code.

Part Two: when you imagine XSLT transformations happening in your mind's eye, what does it look like? I'm a very visual person, and I've never really managed to get a vision which works for me of what's actually going on. I can "see" other programming languages working in my mind and it really helps. I'm hoping someone will post "XSLT is like using a ____ to do _____, you have to _____ or else you get _____" and I'll get an "Aha!" moment out of it.

Collaborative drawing/visualisation of news

atom71 — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 19:38:47 -0800

Need help finding a www link. The page describes artist/group project where a group meet regularly and create a large collaborative drawing about current news & events. The page had images of some of the past drawings and description of the process and I think I found it via a blog post describing it as a visualisation.