I love 3D bar charts

OK, maybe “love” is too strong a word. Let’s say that 3D column/bar charts are like a tall and ugly building: better appreciated from the top, where you can’t see it but you can enjoy a great view. Like this: Now, change the viewing angle, remove gaps and you get this: I’m shamelessly copying the … Read more

Memo regarding data management and reporting

From: CMO To: All Staff Re: Changes in internal data analysis and reporting Consistent with current efforts to streamline our operations, management team has decided to change the way the company analyses and communicates business data. Recent assessments made clear that we are using just a small fraction of the available data, many decisions are not supported … Read more

Data cannot save us from ourselves

Clay Johnson, author of The Information Diet wrote on Twitter: Redistricting should be done with data & open source software, not by humans. Let me be completely honest: I don’t like golden calves and I can spot two in this single sentence: technology and data. Yes, redistricting should be done with data and technology, but the … Read more

Why do people make bad charts? [POLL]

Let’s assume that a bad chart is a chart that breaks basic perceptual laws, contains too much fluff, do not respect data relationships and do not clearly answer the underlying question (if you can find one). Why do people make such charts? Below you can find some reasons. Check the ones you agree with. You … Read more

The best of two worlds: the scatterplot pie

The best chart is always task-dependent, but let me assume that you would choose the scatterplot as the best chart and the pie as the worst. They are like water and oil: impossible to mix them! Are they? Let me tell you about a little experiment. I call it the scatterplot pie just for fun, … Read more

The drummer – a data visualization bedtime story

(…) On the top of the mountain was a plain. There stood an old stone house, and in front of the house lay a great fish-pond, but behind it was a dark forest. He saw neither men nor animals, everything was quiet; only the wind rustled among the trees, and the clouds moved by quite close above his head. … Read more

12 Data Visualization Questions I Have No Answers For

We stop loving someone or something when we feel there is nothing more to discover, when we have no more questions, when we don’t care about the answers. I started writing my Data Visualization for Excel Users series because I have an unhealthy number of open questions. I’d like to go beyond it depends but there … Read more