Data Viz Gone Wrong

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DATA VIZ GONE WRONGWHAT NOT TO DO

Cory Jez

#DataViz15

San Jose, California

April 29, 2015

About MeOver 4 years working as a

BI Analyst, Consultant, and Trainer

Tableau Desktop Certified, Tableau

Certified Trainer

Winner: 2014 Tableau Viz as Art

Fantasy Football & Data Viz

Data Viz is all around

Why Data Viz?

- Arthur Schopenhaur

Why Data Viz?

Why Data Viz?

Have you ever seen a “bad” infographic?

Source: @wtfviz

Survey

Unclear, difficult to understand

Low Data / Ink Ratio

Data Deluge

Too much pie

Misleading or intentionally distorting our data

Truncate Y-Axis

Geographic Data

Cumulative Graphs

Data Viz Gone Wrong

Unclear, difficult to understand

Low Data / Ink Ratio

Data Deluge

Too much pie

Misleading or intentionally distorting our data

Truncate Y-Axis

Geographic Data

Cumulative Graphs

Data Viz Gone Wrong

ink used to print data points

Data-ink ratio =

total ink used to print graphic

Source: The Visual display of Quantitative Information, Edward Tufte

Low Data / Ink Ratio

Redundant coloring

Redundant labeling

Background colors

Grid lines

Color legend

Low Data / Ink Ratio

Color signifies team of

interest

Remove axis, one

label for shots

No background

No grid lines

No color legend

Low Data / Ink Ratio

Remove

to

ImproveThe Data / Ink Ratio

Unclear, difficult to understand

Low Data / Ink Ratio

Data Deluge

Too much pie

Misleading or intentionally distorting our data

Truncate Y-Axis

Geographic Data

Cumulative Graphs

Data Viz Gone Wrong

A lot of data in a tight space

Color scheme used to be congruent with the flag, not to highlight data

Should data about Americans always be represented by a flag?

All metrics are presented in-line with each other (race, age, citizenship)

Male / Female splits are automatically in 2% buckets (50 stars)

Source: junkcharts.com

Data Deluge

Unclear, difficult to understand

Low Data / Ink Ratio

Data Deluge

Too much pie

Misleading or intentionally distorting our data

Truncate Y-Axis

Geographic Data

Cumulative Graphs

Data Viz Gone Wrong

Source: buzzfeed.com

Too Much Pie

Issues:

Uninformative title

Too many pies make comparisons

difficult

Sort ordering

Names in ALL CAPS

Dem and Rep labels are switched

Not all pies add up to 100%

**You just end up reading numbers**

Source: buzzfeed.com

Too Much Pie

Solutions:

Title is more clear

Stacked bars make comparison

easier

Ordered by positive sentiment

Labeling is aligned

Visually see some bars +/- 100%

**You can visualize the winners/losers

and the trends now**

Pie isn’t always bad….

Unclear, difficult to understand

Low Data / Ink Ratio

Data Deluge

Too much pie

Misleading or intentionally distorting our data

Truncate Y-Axis

Geographic Data

Cumulative Graphs

Data Viz Gone Wrong

How much did R.A. Dickey’s Knuckleball velocity decrease in 2013?

Source: Heap Analytics

Truncated Y-axis

How much has his velocity decreased?

How much did R.A. Dickey’s Knuckleball velocity decrease in 2013?

Source: Heap Analytics

Truncated Y-axis

6% ?

2.6% ?

Source: Heap Analytics

Remove labels & tell the story…

2.6% ?

Source: Robinhood

Remove labels & tell the story…

Unclear, difficult to understand

Low Data / Ink Ratio

Data Deluge

Too much pie

Misleading or intentionally distorting our data

Truncate Y-Axis

Geographic Data

Cumulative Graphs

Data Viz Gone Wrong

Blue or Red? Who won?

Source: wikipedia

Geo’s are not sized by population

Some of the largest places: NYC, Boston

appear very small on a map

Solutions

Use “size” to denote population density

Accompany maps with aggregate data

Interactivity – allow for zooming and filtering

Geo Maps

Blue or Red? Who won?

Source: NY Times

Unclear, difficult to understand

Low Data / Ink Ratio

Data Deluge

Too much pie

Misleading or intentionally distorting our data

Truncate Y-Axis

Geographic Data

Cumulative Graphs

Data Viz Gone Wrong

Source: Heap Analytics

Cumulative Graphs: helpful or misleading?

Source: Heap Analytics

Cumulative Graphs: helpful or misleading?

Thanks!

cory.jez1@gmail.com

@jezlax

Linkedin.com/in/coryjez