Meeting with data visualization using Altair and python

Exploring online data visualization tool through visualizing air pollution in my hometown, Almaty (Kazakhstan).

As a designer, I am interested in how visual encoding of numbers helps data to take its shape and be understandable for people so they can explore it, understand in a smaller amount of time and make conclusions. Back few years ago one of my first work assignments was to create an “infographics” for a magazine, which could present some interesting facts about the food area inside the mall. At that point, I was driven more by visual aesthetics, also, “data” was just a set of different numbers, which were not connected with each other. So I came up with a solution like this:

Time passed by, on a regular basis I faced situations when you needed to present complex information in a digestible way. At some point, I found myself so intrigued about generative art and data visualization. Especially, in the specific process how do we turn lots of numbers into something understandable and aesthetically appealing. So being a Master of HCI+Design student at the University of Washington I decided to take CSE442 (Data visualization class) and explore this topic. For this specific visualization, we were asked to come up with a “comic book” of 8 static visualizations that could tell a story.

Based on data and life lived in Almaty, I came up with some assumptions as well as questions. Usually, data visualization can help us in this kind of situations.

From my perspective, both the line chart and scatter plot were useful to understand overall dynamics over the year, and each of them has its own strengths. I think the line chart shows a clear picture of trends and fluctuations, whereas the scatter plot kind of reflects the same but is better in showing different scales of particles/gases comparing to each other.

All of the particles and gases could be divided into two major groups based on the value interval. I decided to show them again, but separately. So people could get a better and more detailed understanding. This process reminded me of showing the main scene in the film with different characters and then making a few close-ups.

Despite such gases as CO2 and NO2, microscopic PM2.5 particles are also very harmful to humans’ health, affecting the breathing system which then leads to asthma and heart diseases as well as shortening the life. So to increase awareness about this fact, I decided to focus on visualizing them closely and show the seasonality.

To make a final word, I decided to use a simple bar chart just to show the average level for each of the particle and gas type.

I realized the power and convenience of using Altair + Python as a tool for data exploration. Such things as changing variables, encoding types, combining/splitting graphs in a few seconds were especially helpful, as it was easy and gave immediate feedback. All this helps to better understand data, validate some of the personal assumptions as well as create more consistent and robust infographics.

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