Is it possible to create a “data visualization hierarchy of needs” like Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs? I’ve tried that in the pyramid above. Here are the details: Is it the right Medium? A chart can really help processing data and minimize information overload, but what about “chart overload”? Don’t make a chart if you … Read more
You are not happy at work. I can clearly see that. Morale is low due to the economy, but it’s something else, isn’t it? You feel handcuffed. You keep hitting a wall. It hurts, hitting a wall while handcuffed… You work with data. There is a formal BI tool in your organization, but it is … Read more
We often learn a lot more from bad examples than from the good ones. So, here is a really bad one (you can find many examples like this in corporate annual reports…). So, what’s wrong here? What do they want to say? If you don’t know what to say, you probably should keep your mouth … Read more
You know that you should avoid the Crystal Xcelsius dashboard style, but now what? Where do you place your charts, kpi, tables? Here is a trick that you can use: write a sentence or a paragraph that summarizes the core message. For example “Our sales are growing in an expanding market, and we are gaining … Read more
My life sucks. Here I am, getting old by the minute, reinventing the wheel every single day, forcing tools to do things they don’t want to do, too busy with the boring details and forgetting the whole picture hidden behind them. Yes, my life sucks. Oh, how I envy that guy over there! He chose … Read more
I’ll be in London tomorrow, November 16, for the Tableau 6.0 Tour. This is my first trip to London in many years and I hope this is also the starting point of a much closer relationship with Tableau. I believe that you can’t improve the way people display data visually if: you tell/show them things … Read more
You can learn a lot from an expert, but a game changer challenges your believes and assumptions and, at some point, that’s exactly what you need to move forward. Creative destruction. I love it. Let me tell you about three of my personal Excel game changers. Jon Peltier Well, I don’t have to tell you … Read more
If you follow Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, you know I’m shamelessly stealing this post title from him. He says that most of the time a list is sorted alphabetically because a) it’s easier to find a name and b) designers are lazy and don’t want to bother finding a better sorting key. While he writes from … Read more
Seven years ago, my wife and I drove 400 miles to the nearest Ikea store and bought furniture for the entire house. Today we have two stores in our city. Things change. Last week we bought a large, wall-to-wall bookcase and replaced some of the old stuff. I don’t really mind to assemble Ikea furniture. … Read more
A year ago I wrote a post about the circumplex chart and how consulting firms use charts to increase their price tag. Not all charts, mind: only the ones that the average user don’t recognize from the Excel charts library. Funny enough, I got several messages from consultants asking how that chart was done. So, … Read more