Semiotics in visualisation

Digital visualisation is a way of representing data and information with the aid of digital means. It ranges from a simple form such as a graph or chart to a complex form like animated visualisations that allows user to interact with the underlying data through direct manipulation (Chen et al., 2008). The notion of digital visualisation engages human interpretation on information in order to gain insights in a particular context (Robert, 2007, Ware, 2012, Czernicki, 2010). Hence, it is a complex process involving multiple disciplines, including the socio-technical element. The social element relates to human perception in interpreting information. The technical element on the other hand, refers to the technology used to enable visualisation, for example the SAS suite (SAS, 2014) that offers visual analytics to support interactive dashboard and reporting.