Contemporary Computing Technologies for Processing Big Spatiotemporal Data - Space-Time Integration in Geography and GIScience - page 336

Fig. 18.8 A Taylor diagram generated in our climate@home project

have a relatively weak ability of vision and cognition on identifying underlying
principles from the overwhelming amounts of spatiotemporal information presented
as textual and numerical data. In this case, approaches that represent information
in visual products such as diagrams are required to help researchers comprehend
the information (Tufte 1997 ). For example, the Taylor diagrams may be used to
assess the model accuracy that is an important task in climate modeling (Fig. 18.8 ).
Scatter plot may be used to demonstrate the relationship between input parameters
and output simulations which is useful for selecting the most appropriate model
settings (Fig. 18.9 ).
However, the design of plot for big data is much harder than small and simple
data. Several principles help plot designers to make effective graphics (Kosslyn
2006 ): (1) neither present too much nor too little information on one static plot
or one frame of dynamic plot; (2) communicate using understandable symbols; (3)
draw readers' attention by large perceptible differences; (4) group information; (5)
make symbols compatible with their meanings; (6) enable accurate comparisons;
(7) enable accurate comparisons; and (8) provide context for interpretation.