Developing Frameworks for Data Representation

Marcus Lem, MD, MHSc, FRCPCSocial Networks Analysis and Visualization for Public Safety WorkshopWachtberg-Werthoven, Germany, Oct. 18, 2005

SCIENCE FINDS,INDUSTRY APPLIES,MAN CONFORMS.

Hall of Science,Chicago World’s Fair, 1933

Framework

Who - Public Health What - Information analysis & transfer Why - Strategies & interventions How - Appropriate data representation

Disciplines: Arts and Sciences

Public Health Statistical graphics Computer Science Decision making Cartography

Public Health:Levels of Decision Making

Political Health Policy (Strategic) Public Health (Operational) Clinical (Tactical)

Public Health Perspective

↑ Information sharing (i.e.. not superiority)

↑ Comprehensibility to management ↑ Utility for decision making Conform to standards (e.g.. WHO)

Public Health:Information Needs

Establish links / connections Directionality Strength of association Time elements Identify key players / problem areas Suggest interventions Express degree or uncertainty Alternate explanation → intervention

Principles of Graphical Excellence

Substance, statistics, design Clarity, precision, efficiency Greatest number of ideas in the shortest

time with the least components in the smallest space (data density)

Multivariate Truth

Information Display - Poor

Methodolog Year Results Results

05E+181E+19

1.5E+192E+19

1) Street-involved persons, Vancouver

2) Needle exchange users, Vancouver, Victoria

3) Clients of Native alcohol and drug treatment centres, British Columbia

4) Adult in prison, British Columbia

5) Clientele of STD clinics in Edmonton and Calgary

Results of HIV prevalence studies among Aboriginals in Can

Information Display - Good

Computer Science:Ergonomic Quality - 1

Primary criteria Speed Accuracy Pleasurability

Influenced by secondary criteria

Ergonomic Criteria - 2

Secondary criteria Learning and recall time Short and long term memory load Fatigue and error susceptibility Naturalness and boundedness Effect of context Effect of user experience and knowledge

Colour Palette

Intuitive Framework 1:Hot to Cold Spectrum

Intuitive Framework 2:Mood / Expression

Intuitive Framework 3:Verbal Expressions

Case fatality (“drop dead”) Depletion e.g.. CD4 (“burn out”) Pandemic spread (“tidal wave”)

Frameworks may be culture-specific and need to be tested against identified audience

Decision Making:Optimal Choice Models A set of alternative courses of action

(acts) A set of possible events associated with

each course of action A value to be associated with each act-

event combination The degree of knowledge with regard to

the chance of each of the events occurring

Criteria for Decision under Certainty

Maximization Minimization “Satisficing”

Criteria for Decision under Uncertainty

Pessimist (maximin / minimax) Optimist (maximax / minimin) Pessimist-Optimist mixture - weighting Maximization / Minimization “Satisficing”

Cartographic Principles

U1 - reality as seen by cartographer S1 - cartographer L - language, symbols, rules M - map S2 - map user U2 - reality as seen by the map user Ic - cartographic information

Simplicity of design and complexity of data

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Grudin’s law: When those who benefit are not those who do the work, then technology is likely to fail or, at least be subverted.

Get it right or let it alone.The conclusions you jump to may be your own.

James Thurber, Further Fables for Our Time (New York 1956)

References The visual display of quantitative information. Edward R. Tufte.

Graphics Press, 1983. Things that make us smart – defending human attributes in the

age of machines. Donald A. Norman. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1993

Statistical graphics – Design principles and practices. Calvin F. Schmid. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1983.

The human factors of graphic interaction tasks and techniques. James D. Foley, Victor L. Wallace, Peggy Chan. Dept of Computer Science, University of Kansas, 1981.

Statistics for decisions – An elementary introduction. Gerald E. Thompson. Little, Brown and Company, Inc., 1972

Acknowledgements

Ann Jolly Public Health Agency of Canada Ali M. Binsilim Communicable Disease Control Division,

First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Health Canada

Questions?

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