Comments on: Will Traditional Charts Survive? http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/will-traditional-charts-survive/ Business Charts, Done Right Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:52:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Paolo Ciuccarelli http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/will-traditional-charts-survive/comment-page-1/#comment-927 Paolo Ciuccarelli Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:11:34 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=618#comment-927 Hi all. Talking again about Nathan's challenge, the visualization posted by Luca Masud (Nathan’s favorite, or, if you prefer, the Pollock-esque one) was an experimental contribution: we asked to some of our master students to use the challenge as an entry point, to verify some of their early hypothesis, and to get as much feedbacks as possible. Luca is currently working – he just started - on the intersection between consistency of data and visualization potentialities. His work is part of a more general framework that we (visual design) cultivates together with a department of statistics. We both (statistics and designers) believe that approaching complexity entails new communication challenges (i.e. considering and visualizing uncertainty) and asks for new tools. There is definitely no room here for a battle between aesthetic and function, between visual design and statistics. This is the time to consolidate the marriage. Hi all. Talking again about Nathan’s challenge, the visualization posted by Luca Masud (Nathan’s favorite, or, if you prefer, the Pollock-esque one) was an experimental contribution: we asked to some of our master students to use the challenge as an entry point, to verify some of their early hypothesis, and to get as much feedbacks as possible. Luca is currently working – he just started – on the intersection between consistency of data and visualization potentialities. His work is part of a more general framework that we (visual design) cultivates together with a department of statistics. We both (statistics and designers) believe that approaching complexity entails new communication challenges (i.e. considering and visualizing uncertainty) and asks for new tools. There is definitely no room here for a battle between aesthetic and function, between visual design and statistics. This is the time to consolidate the marriage.

]]> By: Jon Peltier http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/will-traditional-charts-survive/comment-page-1/#comment-926 Jon Peltier Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:04:00 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=618#comment-926 Hi Paresh - I see the chart, but not the moving dot. However, I did see that the little textbox changes as you mouse along the line. Both of these effects, the moving point and the dynamic textbox, are possible in Excel, using chart events to do the hard work. Hi Paresh -

I see the chart, but not the moving dot. However, I did see that the little textbox changes as you mouse along the line.

Both of these effects, the moving point and the dynamic textbox, are possible in Excel, using chart events to do the hard work.

]]> By: paresh shah http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/will-traditional-charts-survive/comment-page-1/#comment-925 paresh shah Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:06:53 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=618#comment-925 Hi Jorge, Do me a favor please. Can you visit the website www.rediff.com and go to "stocks live". It has this wonderful sparkline type graph on the movement of the stock market for the day. It also has an additional feature of a moving dot which gives you the data regarding the point. I think that is a great functionality - is that replicable in Excel. What I had in mind is a sparkline say in a dashboard giving monthly figures where the user can scroll along the line to see the underlying data. Hi Jorge,

Do me a favor please. Can you visit the website http://www.rediff.com and go to “stocks live”. It has this wonderful sparkline type graph on the movement of the stock market for the day. It also has an additional feature of a moving dot which gives you the data regarding the point. I think that is a great functionality – is that replicable in Excel. What I had in mind is a sparkline say in a dashboard giving monthly figures where the user can scroll along the line to see the underlying data.

]]> By: admin http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/will-traditional-charts-survive/comment-page-1/#comment-924 admin Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:01:50 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=618#comment-924 Enrico, thanks for stopping by and for the links. I am aware of the difference, but at the same time I believe that interaction may somehow blur that difference. There will not be a total overlap, but at least "making-sense" and "communication" must be redefined. A passive audience is an endangered specie, and communication charts/visualizations must take that into account. Enrico, thanks for stopping by and for the links. I am aware of the difference, but at the same time I believe that interaction may somehow blur that difference. There will not be a total overlap, but at least “making-sense” and “communication” must be redefined. A passive audience is an endangered specie, and communication charts/visualizations must take that into account.

]]> By: Enrico Bertini http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/will-traditional-charts-survive/comment-page-1/#comment-923 Enrico Bertini Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:31:37 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=618#comment-923 Jorge, I couldn't agree more with you. Interaction and data reduction are great challenges of infovis. Some time ago I wrote a post titled "<a href="http://diuf.unifr.ch/people/bertinie/visuale/2007/05/the_neglected_role_of_interact_1.html" rel="nofollow">The Neglected Role of Interaction in Infovis</a>", which expresses some concerns on it. In your post I see a potential mix however between different purposes: knowledge discovery/sense-making and communication. Most charts IMHO serve the purpose of communicating something to an audience that has already been digested by others. To convey a message. If we don't keep in mind this difference we might end up giving the wrong advice for a just cause. I think you understand what I mean :-) Anyway ... the best work I have seen on data reduction for infovis in recent years is the work done by Matt Ward and colleagues at WPI. Everything is implemented and included in the <a href="http://davis.wpi.edu/~xmdv/" rel="nofollow">XmdvTool</a>, where you can also find a list of relevant <a href="http://davis.wpi.edu/~xmdv/documents.html" rel="nofollow">research papers. If you don't know this work already I am sure you can find great stuff there. Cheers. Jorge,

I couldn’t agree more with you. Interaction and data reduction are great challenges of infovis. Some time ago I wrote a post titled “The Neglected Role of Interaction in Infovis“, which expresses some concerns on it.

In your post I see a potential mix however between different purposes: knowledge discovery/sense-making and communication. Most charts IMHO serve the purpose of communicating something to an audience that has already been digested by others. To convey a message. If we don’t keep in mind this difference we might end up giving the wrong advice for a just cause. I think you understand what I mean :-)

Anyway … the best work I have seen on data reduction for infovis in recent years is the work done by Matt Ward and colleagues at WPI. Everything is implemented and included in the XmdvTool, where you can also find a list of relevant research papers. If you don’t know this work already I am sure you can find great stuff there.

Cheers.

]]> By: admin http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/will-traditional-charts-survive/comment-page-1/#comment-922 admin Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:12:10 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=618#comment-922 @Jon: I usually follow these challenges, but not this one (as you said in another comment, we must pay the bills...). It looks interesting, from several points of view. A new battle between aesthetics and function... I'm afraid this is wishful thinking, but I secretly hope that the present crisis will make people more aware of the real value of things, including, in our small niche, the value of some charts and charting tools. @Jon: I usually follow these challenges, but not this one (as you said in another comment, we must pay the bills…). It looks interesting, from several points of view. A new battle between aesthetics and function…

I’m afraid this is wishful thinking, but I secretly hope that the present crisis will make people more aware of the real value of things, including, in our small niche, the value of some charts and charting tools.

]]> By: Jon Peltier http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/will-traditional-charts-survive/comment-page-1/#comment-921 Jon Peltier Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:55:43 +0000 http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/?p=618#comment-921 The biggest threat is the move towards "visualizations" which are more and more artistic, but less and less informative. Case in point. Nathan over at <a href="http://flowingdata.com" rel="nofollow">FlowingData</a> has hosted a visualization challenge on the forum attached to his blog. It provided some data on <a href="http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/visualize-this-poverty-rate-by-age-in-america-jan-14-to-jan-20" rel="nofollow">poverty among the different states of the US</a>, and asked for the best visualization efforts of the blog visitors. I and several other people provided pretty much standard charts to display the data. Nathan's <a href="http://flowingdata.com/2009/01/29/visualize-this-piracy-for-oscar-nominated-movies/" rel="nofollow">favorite visualization</a> was not a standard display, however, but a Jackson-Pollock-esque oeuvre that exaggerated one artifact of the data while putting all 50 states into a nondescript blob of color. I didn't care for this graphic, because it didn't show me any information. I also didn't like a handful of animated displays where values were represented on a map, by making the thickness of each state (the third dimension, orthogonal to lattitude and longitude) proportional to the various quantities. You couldn't compare adjacent states, because there was no scale, and you couldn't compare the different measures of poverty, because you have to download and view each separately. Your Tufte quote (show comparisons adjacent in spaces, not stacked in time”) partly sums up my thoughts. The other part was also described by Tufte, who likes dense infographics that allow the reader to take his time while studying the different aspects of the data. Not at the speed of the video, but at the speed of one's own mind. The biggest threat is the move towards “visualizations” which are more and more artistic, but less and less informative.

Case in point. Nathan over at FlowingData has hosted a visualization challenge on the forum attached to his blog. It provided some data on poverty among the different states of the US, and asked for the best visualization efforts of the blog visitors.

I and several other people provided pretty much standard charts to display the data. Nathan’s favorite visualization was not a standard display, however, but a Jackson-Pollock-esque oeuvre that exaggerated one artifact of the data while putting all 50 states into a nondescript blob of color.

I didn’t care for this graphic, because it didn’t show me any information. I also didn’t like a handful of animated displays where values were represented on a map, by making the thickness of each state (the third dimension, orthogonal to lattitude and longitude) proportional to the various quantities. You couldn’t compare adjacent states, because there was no scale, and you couldn’t compare the different measures of poverty, because you have to download and view each separately. Your Tufte quote (show comparisons adjacent in spaces, not stacked in time”) partly sums up my thoughts. The other part was also described by Tufte, who likes dense infographics that allow the reader to take his time while studying the different aspects of the data. Not at the speed of the video, but at the speed of one’s own mind.

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