A motion chart is a dynamic bubble chart

Bubble chart

A bubble chart is a type of chart where each plotted entity is defined in terms of three distinct numeric parameters. Bubble charts can facilitate the understanding of the social, economical, medical, and other scientific relationships.- Overview :...

 which allows efficient and interactive exploration and visualization of longitudinal multivariate Data

Data

The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which...

. Motion Charts provide mechanisms for mapping ordinal, nominal and quantitative variables onto time, 2D coordinate axes, size, colors, glyphs and appearance characteristics, which facilitate the interactive display of multidimensional and temporal data.

Overview

In general, chart

Chart

A chart is a graphical representation of data, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart"...

s, graph

Graph

Graph may refer to:* A graphic depicting the relationship between two or more variables used, for instance, in visualising scientific data.In mathematics:* Graph , is a set of vertices and edges....

s and plot

Plot

Plot is a literary term defined as the events that make up a story, particularly as they relate to one another in a pattern, in a sequence, through cause and effect, or by coincidence. One is generally interested in how well this pattern of events accomplishes some artistic or emotional effect...

s provide the means for summarizing quantitative and qualitative data

Data

The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which...

 using diverse graphical representations. The main limitations of such static types of data exploratory and visualization are the low number of variables that can be shown simultaneously on the chart. Many classical data visualization techniques have limitations in terms of the volume, properties or complexity of the dataset. For instance, Scatter plots require bivariate data. Many datasets include multiple measurements like time, space, demographic, phenotypic and functional recording. For instance, the annual US Housing Price Index dataset includes dozens of variable including location (State and US region), year, unemployment rate, state population, percent subprime loans, etc.

Motion charts provide a dynamic data visualization paradigm that facilitates the representation and understanding of large and multivariate data. Using the familiar 2D Bubble chart

Bubble chart

A bubble chart is a type of chart where each plotted entity is defined in terms of three distinct numeric parameters. Bubble charts can facilitate the understanding of the social, economical, medical, and other scientific relationships.- Overview :...

s, motion Charts enable the display of large multivariate data with thousands of data points and allow for interactive visualization of the data using additional dimensions like time, the size of the blobs, and color) to show different characteristics of the data.

The central object of a motion chart is a blob (or bubble), which is a solid object homeomorphic

Homeomorphism

In the mathematical field of topology, a homeomorphism or topological isomorphism or bicontinuous function is a continuous function between topological spaces that has a continuous inverse function. Homeomorphisms are the isomorphisms in the category of topological spaces—that is, they are...

 to a disc. Blobs have 3 important characteristics – size, position and appearance. Using variable mapping, motion charts allow control over the appearance of the blobs at different time points. This mechanism enhances the dynamic appearance of the data in the motion chart and facilitates the visual inspection of associations, patterns and trends in multivariate datasets.

Examples of motion charts

There are several web-based motion charts graphical data visualization tools including Many-Eyes, Gapminder, Google Motion Charts , and SOCR Motion Charts . These graphical resources allow users to interactively explore relationships and trends of data with temporal characteristics.

See also

• Bar chart
  Bar chart
  A bar chart or bar graph is a chart with rectangular bars with lengths proportional to the values that they represent. The bars can be plotted vertically or horizontally....
  
  
• Bubble chart
  Bubble chart
  A bubble chart is a type of chart where each plotted entity is defined in terms of three distinct numeric parameters. Bubble charts can facilitate the understanding of the social, economical, medical, and other scientific relationships.- Overview :...
  
  
• Diagram
  Diagram
  A diagram is a two-dimensional geometric symbolic representation of information according to some visualization technique. Sometimes, the technique uses a three-dimensional visualization which is then projected onto the two-dimensional surface...
  
  
• Edward Tufte
  Edward Tufte
  Edward Rolf Tufte is an American statistician and professor emeritus of political science, statistics, and computer science at Yale University. He is noted for his writings on information design and as a pioneer in the field of data visualization....
  
  
• Exploratory data analysis
  Exploratory data analysis
  In statistics, exploratory data analysis is an approach to analysing data sets to summarize their main characteristics in easy-to-understand form, often with visual graphs, without using a statistical model or having formulated a hypothesis...
  
  
• Information graphics
  Information graphics
  Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly, such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education...
  
  
• Graphic organizer
• Mathematical diagram
  Mathematical diagram
  Mathematical diagrams are diagrams in the field of mathematics, and diagrams using mathematics such as charts and graphs, that are mainly designed to convey mathematical relationships, for example, comparisons over time.- Argand diagram :...
  
  
• Official statistics
  Official statistics
  Official statistics are statistics published by government agencies or other public bodies such as international organizations. They provide quantitative or qualitative information on all major areas of citizens' lives, such as economic and social development, living conditions, health, education,...
  
  
• Plot (graphics)
  Plot (graphics)
  A plot is a graphical technique for representing a data set, usually as a graph showing the relationship between two or more variables. The plot can be drawn by hand or by a mechanical or electronic plotter. Graphs are a visual representation of the relationship between variables, very useful for...