Abstract

Smart city technologies collect and analyze urban data from which they generate visualizations that allow authorities to monitor the city and make more efficient decisions based on evidence. However, visually representing the data by itself does not reveal the visual patterns of interest; each type of visualization has its strengths and limitations that will make it suitable for some purposes and unsuitable for others. In this study, we propose a guide for selecting data visualization techniques to support people who wish to visualize and take advantage of the data available in a city. The guide was developed based on the fundamentals of visualization and considering the data visualization needs for city management. Using the guide will help analysts select effective visualization techniques, thus helping to create communication channels between data and people.