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Towards a Theory of Bullshit Visualization [pdf]

research.tableau.com

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Re: Towards a Theory of Bullshit Visualization [pdf]

#4

Post by aaron695 »

The recent/many old "Submarine cable map rendered onto a globe" is a good example of this.

If there existed a good digital globe you could have in your house I'd have it as one of the skins, because it looks cool, but it is useless for learning about the true topography.

Or a more obvious example the stupid sliding photos the media use. Before and after a storm or whatever. Actually hiding the data from you to get your dopamine up from making you slide to try and see it. Which if you view the media as just entertainment is ok.

Re: Towards a Theory of Bullshit Visualization [pdf]

#5

Post by spenrose »

"In this unhinged rant, I lay out my suspicion that a lot of visualiza- tions are bullshit: charts that do not have even the common decency to intentionally lie but are totally unconcerned about the state of the world or any practical utility. I suspect that bullshit charts take up a large fraction of the time and attention of actual visualization pro- ducers and consumers, and yet are seemingly absent from academic research into visualization design. ... It is my contention that many (most?) visualizations are bullshit in either the Frankfurt sense of attempting to persuade while being totally disconnected from notions of truths about the world, or in the Graeber sense of being created for no readily apparent purpose and to no real useful end. When they inform, these bullshit charts do so in the most superficial and unsatisfying ways— for instance, a bar chart might tell me that so-and-so many widgets were sold during a particular period of time"

Re: Towards a Theory of Bullshit Visualization [pdf]

#7

Post by raphlinus »

A more sophisticated exploration of this topic is Calling Bullshit[1], by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West. That's a book, but the linked website also has a lot of freely available resources. It's been taught as a college course - week 6 is data visualization.

[1]: https://www.callingbullshit.org/

Re: Towards a Theory of Bullshit Visualization [pdf]

#8

Post by w-j-w »

kowlo wrote: post #6

I feel this would have been more suitable as a blog post rather than a two-column layout under a "research" subdomain. I wonder if "Tableau Research" has a rigorous peer-review process for its research publications.

I was almost wondering if that was going to be the punchline of this paper. "Surprise, we tricked you with an academic format into taking an opinion piece more seriously than you should have, further proving the point we are trying to make"

Re: Towards a Theory of Bullshit Visualization [pdf]

#9

Post by AlbertCory »

So disappointed :) I was hoping this was going to be a visualization OF bullshit, not a rant about bullshit visualizations.

All seriousness aside, Correll fails to realize that the layout, length, and organization of your text are also forms of visualization, and at those, he fails completely.

"It is my contention that many (most?) visualizations are bullshit in either the Frankfurt sense of attempting to persuade while being totally disconnected from notions of truths about the world, or in the Graeber sense of being created for no readily apparent purpose and to no real useful end."

So he's shown us some erudition by throwing in Frankfurt & Graeber. Whoopee. When he mentions Tufte, a pioneer and a giant in his field, he's dismissive.

All that said, there is some worthwhile stuff in here. He needs to study The Elements of Style, hire an editor, and reduce it to a readable three pages or so, single-column.

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