I found this  classification of different types of visualisations

  • data visualisation - numbers in a graph, pie chart, barchart, scatterplot (quantitative data)
  • information visualisation - interactive visual reprentation of information in order to improve cognition
  • concept visualisation - mindmaps and other representations of concepts (qualitative data)
  • strategy visualisation - company strategy - (I dont understand how this in a classification similar to the others listed here)
  • metaphor visualisation - use a metaphores such as tree or landmass to represent something completely different
  • compound visualisation - something that uses a fixture of the above techniques

I think a better classification of a visualisation would be

  1. Is the visualisation user interactive?
  2. Does it represent a moment in time or a change over time  (does it have a time dimension)
  3. Does it contain quantitative data (numbers)
  4. Does it contain qualitative data (opinions of concepts - based on subjective or intangible ideas such as "warmth" or "friendly")
  5. Number of physical dimensions - 1D, 2D, 3D
  6. What visual que's  are used to represent information - color, line patterns, fill area, animation

more to be added to this classification list over time