My own visualization practice
A single horizon chart is easy to make in Excel using overlapping columns or areas (the trick is to structure the data the right way). But the horizon chart is a variation of small multiples, so what makes sense is to stack them to compare multiple entities. That’s problematic in Excel. But many charts can … Read more
It began with a tweet: Data tweeps: Help! I need to become a competent data viz thinker, well, immediately. Are there “must-read” sources that y’all can suggest? — Lindsey Leininger (@lindsleininger) September 27, 2017 In spite of being a notorious Excel Brute Forcer (thanks, Elijah!), I was invited for a presentation at JMP and was working on … Read more
This post summarizes a few key points in my NTTS2017 effective data visualization for statistical offices
So our usually calm data visualization corner on Twitter was shaken by this tweet: Forget pepperoni – mushroom is Britain's most liked pizza topping (65%), followed by onion (62%) and then ham (61%) https://t.co/5kYikXOEtF pic.twitter.com/AJezMfJHbk — YouGov (@YouGov) March 6, 2017 quickly followed by this one: We're very sorry for the confusion, but this is … Read more
I have a soft spot for bad and seemingly hopeless charts and graphs. All they deserve a second chance, so I try to help them out of the gutter. The other day, I was roaming the dirty alleys of El Dorado Hills (don’t ask) when I saw it. The speedometer. Few charts are strong enough to endure … Read more
You are a brilliant scientist and you just made an amazing discovery. You want to announce it to the world. So you prepare a few slides and decide to use that cute font, Comic Sans. After the presentation you realize that, although people praise you for your discovery, a very vocal minority mocks you for … Read more
It surprised me. And it shouldn’t. You see, there is nothing wrong in using data for the sole purpose of creating aesthetically pleasing visual objects. On the other hand, if you want to make sense of the data, and communicate your findings, it’s easy to argue that effectiveness should be your primary goal. This is the general model. … Read more
A long time ago I tweeted about the need for everyone in the data visualization community to write a book. I wasn’t joking: if you only tweet or write a few posts, you can’t possibly comprehend the lay of your own data visualization land, how deep the rabbit hole goes, the ________________ (choose your own … Read more
Stephen Few and Alberto Cairo (Alberto is the host, that’s why he doesn’t say much) And now let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: –Behold! human beings living in a meeting room, which has a projector with a Powerpoint presentation always turned on; here they have been from … Read more
I’m an introvert, so it’s very easy for me to also be an uncompromising Marxist (the Groucho flavor), specially when it comes to club membership (I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member) but things changed since I discovered data visualization. I love it and love this loose … Read more