Displaying Time Series, Spatial, and Space-Time Data with R

Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 What This Book Is About

A data graphic is not only a static image but also tells a story about the data. It activates cognitive processes that are able to detect patterns and discover information not readily available with the raw data. This is particularly true for time series, spatial, and space-time datasets.

There are several excellent books about data graphics and visual perception theory, with guidelines and advice for displaying information, including visual examples. Let’s mention The Elements of Graphical Data (Cleveland 1994) and Visualizing Data (Cleveland 1993) by W. S. Cleveland, Envisioning Information (Tufte 1990) and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (Tufte 2001) by E. Tufte, The Functional ...