Meet the Authors Series: Introduction to Information Visualization: Transforming Data into Meaningful Information

Applying information visualization in research, service, teaching, and professional life requires a solid understanding of graphic design and the aesthetic along with hands-on skills and knowledge of data principles and software. This book is applicable to students in all domains, to researchers who need to understand how to create graphics that explain their data, and to professionals and administrators for professional development training. Website Designers and Human-Computer Interaction researchers will appreciate the backstory of designing interactive visualizations for the web. Drawing on the author’s years of practice and teaching, it bridges the two worlds in ways everyone can participate in the future of information and to appreciate the beautiful in information: step-by-step directions in the fundamentals of HTML5, CSS, and d3.js; design challenges with fully explained answers; web-site support for code samples (JavaScript, d3.js, python), live examples, and a place to build a community of other IV pros; useful for teaching design to scientists; data to the humanities; guidance for using the text depending on the class makeup; review of third-party visualization software, big data trends, and script libraries; and guidance on how to continue in the IV world after graduation.

Professor Gerry Benoit is an Info Visualization, Data Science & Systems Analysis Consultant Lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Information. After a career in information systems analysis and design (UC, County of Monterey, Price Waterhouse), he moved to academics, earning a doctorate from UCLA. His dissertation studied human language behaviors and applying when human-human and human-computer interactions helped or hindered understanding. Using discriminate analysis, he applied Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action.