Visual Encoding

Visual encoding is the way in which data is constructed into visual structures. They are the building blocks of graphics.

Planar Encoding

Planar encoding is as simple as the laying of axis, like the x & y axis in a simple line chart.

Retinal Encoding

To represent data in 3 or more variables, retinal encoding comes into the picture. Size, texture, shape, orientation, color gradient and color hue are some examples.

Others

  • Time lapse
  • Scale adjustments
  • Slides based

Ranking of Encodings

People are able to interpret some visual encodings better than others. A study done showed that position (y, x axis) is the best, followed by length, angle and slope, area, volume, and lastly, color and density. Pay attention to these when constructing your visual.

_images/rankingencode.png

from Udacity’s data visualisation & d3.js course