So what are the benefits of visualization over other techniques? My favorite answer is this:
- "Visualization not only helps you answer questions that you have, but it elicits questions that you did not even think of before. So for some things you can come up with algorithms to solve your problems, but for others, you don't even know your problem upfront!"
There are many more benefits to visualization. Here are just a few:
- The bandwidth of data you can transfer in a picture is much bigger than having a human look at log files or textual data.
- Relationships become very apparent. Sometimes they are completely hidden without visualization.
- Interactive visualizations benefit from dynamic queries which are an incredible tool to explore data.
- Visualization inspires. You look at a picture or a graph and suddenly you realize what is really going on.
- It's a great tool to communicate information in a very compact and often easy to understand way.
- It definitely reduces analysis and response times. Sifting through thousands of line of logs is definitely slower than looking at a few graphs of the same data.
I am curious what other's think. Let's add to the list!