Graphical Decoding

Graphical decoding is the process of reverse-engineering a graph and trying to determine the graphical components and mapping rules.

There are two steps:

More precisely,

First, identify the visual marks. Then, try to determine what data items the marks represent. (marks $\rightarrow$ data items)
Identify the visual channels. Then, determine what data attaributes the channels represent. (channels $\rightarrow$ data attributes)

Note that for network graphs, we usually have two types of marks, one for nodes and another for links.

Last updated 4 years ago

Graphical decoding is the process of reverse-engineering a graph and trying to determine the graphical components and mapping rules.

There are two steps:

More precisely,

First, identify the visual marks. Then, try to determine what data items the marks represent. (marks $\rightarrow$ data items)
Identify the visual channels. Then, determine what data attaributes the channels represent. (channels $\rightarrow$ data attributes)

Note that for network graphs, we usually have two types of marks, one for nodes and another for links.