You might want to look at the cartogram literature. See e.g. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/
I don't know of an R implementation of this sort of thing, but perhaps others can correct me. url: www.econ.uiuc.edu/~roger Roger Koenker email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of Economics vox: 217-333-4558 University of Illinois fax: 217-244-6678 Champaign, IL 61820 On Aug 24, 2007, at 12:30 PM, Yeh, Richard C wrote: > Hello, > > I apologize that this is off-topic. I am seeking information on > perception of graphical data, in an effort to improve the plots I > produce. Would anyone point me to literature reviews in this > area? (Or > keywords to try on google?) Is this located somewhere near cognitive > science, psychology, human factors research? > > For example, some specific questions I have are: > > I recall as a child when I first saw a map where the areas of the > containers (geographical states) were drawn as rectangles, > proportional > to a quantity other than land area. Does anyone know of an algorithm > for drawing such maps? Would anyone know of a journal or reference > where I can find studies on whether subjects reading these maps can > accurately assess the meaning of the different areas, as [some of us] > can assess different heights on a bar graph? (What about areas in bar > graphs with non-uniform widths?) > > Scatter plots of microarray data often attempt to represent > thousands or > tens of thousands of points, but all I read from them are density and > distribution --- the gene names cannot be shown. At what point, > would a > sunflowerplot-like display or a smooth gradient be better? When two > data points drawn as 50% gray disks are small and tangent, are they > perceptually equivalent to a single, 100% black disk? Or a 50% gray > disk with twice the area? What problems are known about plotting with > disks --- do viewers use the area or the diameter (or neither) to > gauge > weight? > > > As you can tell, I'm a non-expert, mixing issues of data > interpretation, > visual perception, graphic representation. Previously, I didn't have > the flexibility of R's graphics, so I didn't need to think so much. > I've read some of Edward S. Tufte's books, but found them more > qualitative than quantitative. > > Thanks! > > Richard > > 212-933-3305 / [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting- > guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.