The CIA Factbook is full of data in tables about the world. Below I downloaded CO2 emissions from 207 world regions and visualized them in Excel and with my prototype software.
| Excel | 3D Metrics |
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The added value is to be understood in an evolutionary context. First we put data into tables, then we learned to visualize them as curves which, as an image, immediately tell us more than a series of data.
Then spreadsheet programs like Excel perfected the process of visualizing data by offering different kinds of charts.
The value that the 3d metric approach adds, lies on the level of additional visual and metric information:
| Excel | 3D Metrics |
| Data points are connected into colourful curves | Data points are connected such that Up lines are green and Down lines are red |
| Many data curves are presented as parallel curves | Data curves are presented in their individual vertical frames |
| Data curves are superimposed in a 2D axis system | Each vertical frame is positioned in a “visual 3D” space |
| Different types of charts offer different kinds of “visual effects” | The presentation in “visual 3D” offers additional “metric values” or “quantifiers” that serve as indicators of different kinds of correlations |
| Quantifications are provided by axis labels | Metric values and quantifiers need to be programmed for individual applications to customise frame values and tailor axis labels |
Additional visual and metric information provided by 3d metric screens:
- the height of individual frames
- the width of individual frames
- the diagonal distances between frames
- the slope and shape of the line that the bottom right corners of the frames create
- scope for further quantifications through other parameters.
