Comments on: Sub-Prime Charts: Should Data Visualization Be Boring? http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/sub-prime-charts-should-data-visualization-be-boring/ Effective Charts and Dashboards for Excel users Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:31:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jim Tyson http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/sub-prime-charts-should-data-visualization-be-boring/#comment-50128 Jim Tyson Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:17:49 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=959#comment-50128 I have been chuckling quietly over the microsoft add which shows a sullen teen taking his dad's laptop and jazzing up his boring sales presentation with gee-whizz graphics and animations. If Microsoft believe that the possibility of doing this to business information is some to advertise then we're all in big trouble! I work in the academic sector and the first thing I tell students when I am training them to produce charts is that less is almost always more for scientific charting: clear data presentation, visible and legible labels, a proper legend, include units always and that's about it. Oh and one dimension in the chart and no more for each dimension in the data. I have been chuckling quietly over the microsoft add which shows a sullen teen taking his dad’s laptop and jazzing up his boring sales presentation with gee-whizz graphics and animations. If Microsoft believe that the possibility of doing this to business information is some to advertise then we’re all in big trouble! I work in the academic sector and the first thing I tell students when I am training them to produce charts is that less is almost always more for scientific charting: clear data presentation, visible and legible labels, a proper legend, include units always and that’s about it. Oh and one dimension in the chart and no more for each dimension in the data.

]]> By: stat arb http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/sub-prime-charts-should-data-visualization-be-boring/#comment-20899 stat arb Tue, 02 Nov 2010 05:23:23 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=959#comment-20899 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

]]> By: Jorge Camoes http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/sub-prime-charts-should-data-visualization-be-boring/#comment-1186 Jorge Camoes Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:06:45 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=959#comment-1186 @Jess: That's OK with me... Business users should never elect the media as their role model for data visualization. Copying "crazy infographics" using Excel will be harder... @Benjamim: Thanks. "clear, precise and reduced to the essential": well, some people will argue that this is what boring is about... (I love Prague. I was there twice and I'd love to show it to my almost 4-year old twins. Do you think I should add Kafka to their bed-time stories?:) @Jess: That’s OK with me… Business users should never elect the media as their role model for data visualization. Copying “crazy infographics” using Excel will be harder…

@Benjamim: Thanks. “clear, precise and reduced to the essential”: well, some people will argue that this is what boring is about… (I love Prague. I was there twice and I’d love to show it to my almost 4-year old twins. Do you think I should add Kafka to their bed-time stories?:)

]]> By: Jess http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/sub-prime-charts-should-data-visualization-be-boring/#comment-1185 Jess Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:15:27 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=959#comment-1185 I think suit and tie business may go back to conservative chart making but specter of wild and crazy infographics/visualization has already been let out of the box and is only growing in intensity. People are stretching information display to see how far they can do so. I look forward to a return to the age of comprehension in that area. I think suit and tie business may go back to conservative chart making but specter of wild and crazy infographics/visualization has already been let out of the box and is only growing in intensity. People are stretching information display to see how far they can do so. I look forward to a return to the age of comprehension in that area.

]]> By: Benjamin http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/sub-prime-charts-should-data-visualization-be-boring/#comment-1184 Benjamin Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:05:07 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=959#comment-1184 Thanks for this great discussion of the NY Times article. Though the title could be somewhat misleading because as you said: it's not about a chart being boring but rather clear, precise and reduced to the essential. Thanks for this great discussion of the NY Times article. Though the title could be somewhat misleading because as you said: it’s not about a chart being boring but rather clear, precise and reduced to the essential.

]]> By: Jorge Camoes http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/sub-prime-charts-should-data-visualization-be-boring/#comment-1183 Jorge Camoes Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:31:01 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=959#comment-1183 No, I didn't. I'll take a look. Thanks for the link. No, I didn’t. I’ll take a look. Thanks for the link.

]]> By: Simon Pride http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/sub-prime-charts-should-data-visualization-be-boring/#comment-1182 Simon Pride Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:16:41 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=959#comment-1182 Jorge, have you seen the new graphing / charting tool from Omni Group, OmniGraphSketcher? It's aimed at creating clear, clean, simple graphs and annotating them, and nothing more. Looks pretty Tufte-compliant to me! :) http://www.omnigroup.com/ http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraphsketcher/ Jorge, have you seen the new graphing / charting tool from Omni Group, OmniGraphSketcher? It’s aimed at creating clear, clean, simple graphs and annotating them, and nothing more. Looks pretty Tufte-compliant to me! :)

http://www.omnigroup.com/

http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraphsketcher/

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