Visualizing visualizationsAUG 10 2010

Two visual representations of the history of data visualizations, each of which takes a different approach and reveals something different:

• Milestones in the History of Data Visualization, which uses an interactive multidimensional timeline to emphasize historical progression;
• A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods, which emphasizes structural similarities.

I think I like the visual approach of the second site better -- I mean, who doesn't love repurposed periodic tables? (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) But the sheer variety, eclecticism, and particularity of visualization methods on display at the Milestones site is hard to beat, including EEGs, the invention of the Cartesian coordinate plane, the USA Today weather map, and other things you might not immediately think of when you think of data visualization.

via @whitneytrettien at MITHyperStudio, whch has a lot of great stuff on data viz, as does the full Milestones site at datavis.ca.