Alternative Data Visualization Libraries

The Data Visualisation Catalogue isn’t the only library of data visualization methods out there.

A number of individuals have also taken it upon themselves to survey and present their findings on the different ways to visualize information. Some have focused on particular subjects such as visualizing time-based data, text visualizations or hierarchal structures. While others have created a more generalized list.

Originally, this project was written as part of a Master’s thesis in interface design titled “The Form of Facts and Figures” by Christian Behrens.

Although no longer online, this website collected a list of design patterns that described methods for effectively displaying interactive information graphics. While the list did contain a number of chart reference pages, it also included interactive design patterns for interacting with the data.

Behren’s project was influential in the creation of my own website and was probably also the inspiration for some of other libraries below.

This project by Kostiantyn Kucher and Andreas Kerren, includes both a website and a paper, that focuses on collecting examples of visualization techniques that display text-based data.

Clicking on any of the charts on the grid will display more information on it, such as the publish date of the visualization, authors, categories and its source. On the sidebar, there are a number of options that allow you to filter the charts displayed in the collection.

Kucher and Kerren also have a very similar library dedicate to visualization techniques for sentiment data, called the SentimentVis Browser.

Christian Tominskiand Wolfgang Aigner in their website have compiled “A Visual Survey of Visualization Techniques for Time-Oriented Data” to accompany their book.

As the title suggests, this resource contains a collection of charts that are used for time-oriented data. If you click on any of the image blocks, you’re presented with an example image, category icons, references and an excerpt from the book for further research. Like with the Text Visualization Browser, the library of charts can also be filtered down from the options in the sidebar.

Hans-Jörg Schulz in his project has focused on collecting wide-range of charts that visualize hierarchal or “tree” based visualizations.