This article goes much against conventional wisdom about pie charts (and doughnut charts) by answering these two simple questions: Can we use a large number of categories in pie charts? (Yes, we can.) Can we make a productive use of the apparently useless doughnut chart? (Yes, we can.) Disclaimer (Sort of…) Let me start by … Read more
Loss aversion – wrong chart example JunkCharts writes an interesting post on how loss aversion can happen in chart-making. The general concept of loss aversion tells us that “people strongly prefer avoiding losses than acquiring gains”. Translated to chart-making, it means that there is a “tendency to avoid losing data at any cost”. “To clarify, … Read more
Do you type well? I mean, do your thoughts flow naturally through your fingers or, on the contrary, your (low) typing skills come between your thoughts and your writing? I don’t type fast enough, I look at the keyboard from time to time and I don’t follow some simple typing rules that would save me … Read more
One of the reasons why information visualization in business is so poor is because many managers are clueless about it. They really believe that a simple training course on Office tools is more than enough to create some nice 3D charts for a Powerpoint presentation (and they are right: that’s all they need, because that’s … Read more
Seth’s blog is always interesting, and usually I agree with him and learn something. However, when he discusses charts and graphs he’s often a very light purple cow. This week he confirms that. Godin’s The three laws of great graphs tells us that, when using graphs in presentations, we should follow these simple principles: “one … Read more
I follow some of the top blogs-about-blogging and they often come up with advices that I can relate to when thinking of information visualization: simplicity, consistency, go to the point, remove clutter, tell a story… Problem is, bloggers about blogging fail to follow their own advice when they attempt to graphically display the results of … Read more
Wow is Beauty, Eureka is Knowledge. Wow alone is a dumb blond, Eureka alone is a decrepit old wizard. Great information visualization is 20% meaningful wow and 80% useful Eureka.
New to information visualization? Let me give you some quick answers to frequently asked questions. What is a chart? Just open your eyes and an amazing amount of data is immediately funneled into your brain. This data is processed in real time and makes possible your interaction with the outside world. Shapes and patterns emerge … Read more
Always ask yourself: “what can I remove from this chart”? Remove Excel defaults, remove grid lines, make the chart smaller, use soft colors, remove irrelevant labels, remove the legend (by directly labeling series), remove series that you don’t really need, remove frames, remove decimal places, remove visual fluff. Then ask yourself: “what can I add … Read more