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Visualizing data is an art

perthirtysix.com

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Re: Visualizing data is an art

#41

Post by patrick451 »

haswell wrote: post #36
patrick451 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evoking emotions is the role of art, not data visualization.

Data visualizations are absolutely used to evoke emotions. Many visualizations are built with the primary goal of driving behavioral change. These by definition will be playing on our hopes, fears, greed, to drive urgency, etc. Beyond the potential emotional power of a well-chosen and executed visualization, there's also a decent bit of research about the ability to influence mood via color choice. Color choice when…

I agree data visualization be used for emotional manipulation. But that is unethical. Dressing up rhetoric in the trappings of science is one of the many reasons science has lost tons of credibility in the last 20 years.

Charts should be about hard data, not rhetoric.

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#42

Post by patrick451 »

shriracha wrote: post #33
patrick451 wrote: post #31

> It is completely reasonable to give up some precision to: > - Reduce unnecessary cognitive load and emphasize a feeling, as in the Climate Stripes example. > - Encode a much higher volume of data, as in the Climate Globe example. > -Add delight and use a visual metaphor to show trends, as in the Coffee Shop example This the most absurd claim I have ever seen regarding data visualization. Give up precision for delig…

You think the Climate Stripes are an example of "lying"?

I think obscuring details to foment emotion is lying regardless of what the chart is about.

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#43

Post by ngriffiths »

> And creating art is about more than just precision. It's about evoking emotion, telling stories, and sparking curiosity. It's about making people think and feel.

For sure, the best artists are the ones who take their whole perception of stuff, with the feelings and everything else, and put it directly in someone else's brain. I would maybe say that some data visualization is supposed to do that, particularly data journalism, but definitely not all data visualization.

I think not all data visualization is art in the same sense that not all writing is literature, and in fact almost all isn't, because it's more like "I am in a shared info network with my boss/colleagues/clients/readers, and we need to communicate as rapidly and directly as possible, so we've agreed on a shared visual language that is higher bandwidth." Emails are slightly less exciting to read than a novel but like a million times faster to write per word.

Which is kind of sad. It would be fun to hone that skill and there is no room for that at my job.

(Side note, it seems like everyone always says that the pie chart problem is about lengths vs angles... but isn't it just that one chart has a shared baseline and the other doesn't? Taking the middle out [donut chart] to emphasize arc length doesn't actually solve the problem. Conversely, a stacked bar is more like a pie chart than a bar chart, except with a weird aspect ratio if you only have one stacked bar).

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#44

Post by shriracha »

patrick451 wrote: post #42
shriracha wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think the Climate Stripes are an example of "lying"?

I think obscuring details to foment emotion is lying regardless of what the chart is about.

All visualizations abstract and obscure data. There is no such thing as a fully neutral graph. Should everything just be a raw table?

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#45

Post by shriracha »

ngriffiths wrote: post #43

> And creating art is about more than just precision. It's about evoking emotion, telling stories, and sparking curiosity. It's about making people think and feel. For sure, the best artists are the ones who take their whole perception of stuff, with the feelings and everything else, and put it directly in someone else's brain. I would maybe say that some data visualization is supposed to do that, particularly data j…

Author of the article here. Great points, thanks for reading and commenting.

I think that data journalism is a great example of that "put it in someone's brain" idea.

I also think there are all kinds of places we're seeing more novel approaches in too: data art, physical data viz (e.g. museum exhibits), visualizing huge datasets, etc. The Climate Stripes project, maybe the most famous data viz of the last couple decades, was made by a climate scientist.

But I definitely agree that this "more experimental than rigid" side of data viz doesn't capture the majority of the field, nor should it!

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#46

Post by burch45 »

thom wrote: post #29

It’s so easy to measure how fast and accurate users are at completing real tasks in your domain using various viz. I’d be disappointed if the conversation was purely between rigid principles and artistry.

Yes. This is exactly the sort of information you’ll find in Bill Cleveland’s books.l (referenced at the start of the article then somewhat dismissed later). Bill Cleveland did all these sorts of studies with actual users about which visualizations are most accurate and quickest to parse. He did tons of work at IBM studying this stuff because they needed to use effective visualizations to convey information to decision makers. Unfortunately most of the visualization discourse has been taken over by people like Tufte who focus on style rather than measurable substance.

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#47

Post by thom »

burch45 wrote: post #46
thom wrote: post #29

It’s so easy to measure how fast and accurate users are at completing real tasks in your domain using various viz. I’d be disappointed if the conversation was purely between rigid principles and artistry.

Yes. This is exactly the sort of information you’ll find in Bill Cleveland’s books.l (referenced at the start of the article then somewhat dismissed later). Bill Cleveland did all these sorts of studies with actual users about which visualizations are most accurate and quickest to parse. He did tons of work at IBM studying this stuff because they needed to use effective visualizations to convey information to decisio…

Yes and I’m not saying you’re wrong to dismiss it - all that work has been passed down as immutable, static laws that people regurgitate to say some things are good and some are bad. The fact is, most viz exists to support specific tasks or decisions and you should always test those directly yourself.

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#48

Post by BLKNSLVR »

patrick451 wrote: post #31

> It is completely reasonable to give up some precision to: > - Reduce unnecessary cognitive load and emphasize a feeling, as in the Climate Stripes example. > - Encode a much higher volume of data, as in the Climate Globe example. > -Add delight and use a visual metaphor to show trends, as in the Coffee Shop example This the most absurd claim I have ever seen regarding data visualization. Give up precision for delig…

Giving up precision is different to giving up the narrative. The narrative can be helped by engagement and if that comes at the cost of precision, then that was the cost of getting the message further than it may have otherwise reached.

In this case, what is meant by "give up some precision" is to try removing some sharp edges that get in the way of telling the story. It's a long way from lying (when done with due consideration).

They're examples. Choose what works for your data and you your story to get the best result.

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#49

Post by BLKNSLVR »

xnx wrote: post #12

I've grown out of being impressed by flashy and difficult to understand data visualizations. I'm much more impressed by novel insight, clearly presented, in familiar ways.

I think that's the point of the article. Novel insight is almost a pre-requisite to determining how to present the data in a way that's quickly and easily understandable.

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#50

Post by wodenokoto »

__mharrison__ wrote: post #26

I just wrote a book (released yesterday!), Effective Visualization, that takes almost the opposite approach. Follow well-known patterns and know your audience. That should guide you to telling a good story. It can look pretty, but making it art for the sake of art probably won't resonate with your audience. That's been my experience after I've trained and consulted with some of the biggest companies in the world. htt…

Almost all pictures on that page are cropped weirdly when viewing on mobile. Words are cut off in many.
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