Fresh Thinking on Communicating with Data

Andy Kirk Data Visualisation Specialist & Founder of visualisingdata.com

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Thank you for joining today’s webinar

Today’s presenters

Andy Kirk

Data Visualisation Specialist and Founder,

visualisingdata.com

Andy Cotgreave

Technical Evangelist, Tableau Software

The Tableau Revolution Fast and easy analytics for everyone

FRESH THINKING ON COMMUNICATING WITH DATA

Andy Kirk

www.visualisingdata.com @visualisingdata

Data visualisation specialist: Blogger, trainer, lecturer, researcher, author, design consultant, speaker...

Data visualisation specialist: Blogger, trainer, lecturer, researcher, author, design consultant, speaker...

Superstar technicians

Everyday practitioners

EMBRACING FRESH THINKING

Initiator Journalist

Communicator Project Manager

Designer

Cognitive Scientist

Computer Scientist

Data Scientist

http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2012/06/article-the-8-hats-of-data-visualisation-design/

The 8 hats of visualisation design

TALENT

THINKING

CONTEXTUAL IMAGINATIVE

JOURNALISTIC CRITICAL

ORGANISED CONVICTIONS

Embrace fresh thinking!

#1 CONTEXTUAL Framing our thinking

YOU ARE KAYAKING ALONG THE COAST OF GREENLAND AND YOU NEED A ‘CHART’ TO NAVIGATE...

The influence of context

(HT to Mark Daggett @heavysixer)

Cope with wet? Can’t need power? Work in dark? Can float?

http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2013/03/tactile-visualisations-inuit-wood-maps/

“… in order to design a tool, we must make our best efforts to understand the larger social and physical

context within which it is intended to function.”

Bill Buxton, “Sketching User Experiences”

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0123740371/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=visuadata-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0123740371

Stakeholders, influencers and interferers

Timescales?

http://comicsidontunderstand.com/wordpress/category/new-yorker/

Design rules: Layout, colour, typography, branding, language?

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/11/award-winning-newspaper-designs/ | http://dmindless.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-make-presentation-that-rocks.html

Designing for an audience: Consumer setting?

Frequency, reproducibility

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2015/feb/27/guardian-poll-projection

http://www.cleverfranke.com/cf/en/project/weerkaarten-c-deg-f/project.php?id=170

Format requirements?

Designer capabilities?

What’s the best visualisation solution? It always depends. Get your contextual

thinking established first.

Takeaway #1: Contextual thinking

#2 IMAGINATIVE Empathy & creativity

http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/rtn/#prison-uniforms-set

Subject empathy

http://blogs.reuters.com/data-dive/2013/12/10/gms-new-ceo-is-another-small-crack-in-the-glass-ceiling/ http://www.chezvoila.com/blog/glass-ceiling

Subject empathy

Subject empathy: Challenging conventions

http://jaimeserra-archivos.blogspot.com.es/2015/01/cafe-diario-la-relacion-que-mantengo.html

Creativity: Rethinking concepts

https://www.facebook.com/RenzoPicassoArchive

Creativity: Be inspired by the world around you

http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2012/05/the-fine-line-between-plagiarism-and-inspiration/

Creativity: Be inspired by the world around you (with attribution)

Creativity: Capture instinctive ideas and imagery

What creative ideas – instinctive keywords and imagery – form when you think about a

task: its intended recipients, the subject matter and its data?

Takeaway #2: Imaginative thinking

#3 JOURNALISTIC Harnessing curiosity

The journalist-analyst sensibility to pursue a curiosity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Landmesser

Pattern matching, sense-making, sniffing out the story

http://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/latest

Pattern matching, sense-making, sniffing out the story

Visualisation often serves up the questions not the answers

Haiti

Afghanistan

S. Africa

Kuwait

Vietnam

Nauru

North Korea

Tajikistan

Ethiopia

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/01/business/20090301_WageGap.html

Passing on your understanding to your audience

“A photo is never an objective reflection, but always an interpretation of reality... I see data visualization as sort of

a new photojournalism – a highly editorial activity.”

Moritz Stefaner

http://well-formed-data.net/archives/1027/worlds-not-stories

https://twitter.com/toddlerlex/status/440393501810118656/photo/1

Photo-journalistic: Consider all angles

Be motivated by curiosity and a desire to effectively convey the most

relevant understanding to others.

Takeaway #3: Journalistic thinking

#4 CRITICAL

Justified decision making

Visualisation is a game of decisions

5 Layers: Data representation & presentation

Annotation

Interactivity

Composition

Colour

http://hint.fm/wind/

Data Representation

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/19/upshot/peyton-manning-breaks-touchdown-passing-record.html?abt=0002&abg=0

DATA REPRESENTATION: A visual answer to a data question How have NFL cumulative touchdown passes grown since 1930

for quarterbacks with over 30 TD passes?

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/19/upshot/peyton-manning-breaks-touchdown-passing-record.html?abt=0002&abg=0

DATA REPRESENTATION: A visual answer to a data question How have NFL cumulative touchdown passes grown since 1930

for quarterbacks with over 30 TD passes?

Angle: Change of quantitative value (touchdowns) over time for multiple categories (quarterbacks)

Filter: Parameters for time period (1930 to 19th October 2014)

and minimum qualifying quantitative threshold (30 TD passes)

http://bryanchristieblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/my-visual-definition-of-information.html http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_colorpicker.asp?colorhex=F0F8FF

COLOUR: Applying theory and common sense

INTERACTIVITY: Manipulate, interrogate, participate

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0

http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2011/07/new-visualisation-design-project-un-global-pulse-challenge/

ANNOTATION: Judging the right level of help

https://www.flickr.com/photos/accurat/14577900823/in/set-72157632185046466?utm_content=buffer050e5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

COMPOSITION: Size, shape, position, order

“Good design is thorough down to the last detail... Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance.”

Dieter Rams’ ‘10 principles of good design’

https://www.vitsoe.com/gb/about/good-design

Be able to justify every design decision

http://www.oecd.org/dac/peerreviewsofdacmembers/PRFINLAND2012.pdf

The real craft behind data visualisation design is how we rationalise choices.

To make astute choices, you need to be aware of all the options.

Takeaway #4: Critical thinking

#5 ORGANISED

Sequenced thinking

Visualisation is a process, not a procedure

1. Establish the visualisation’s context and ideas

2. Acquire, familiarise with and prepare your data

3. Determine the editorial focus of your subject matter

5. Construct and evaluate your design solution

4. Conceive your design: data representation and presentation

Where to begin? What pathway to take?

http://www.mattneuman.com/maze.gif

Cohesion and flow of thinking

ANAL

YTICA

L

CREA

TIVE

Splitting the mindset

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/66602562/397----THE-DOORS----RIDERSONTHESTORM-PIANO-SHEET-MUSIC

Many different proposed methodologies

https://speakerdeck.com/alignedleft/open-source-your-data-design-process

Don’t force it! Find what works for you

Pursue an effective and efficient workflow to sequence and optimise your thinking.

Takeaway #5: Organised thinking

#6 CONVICTIONS

Your own thinking

Framework for thinking rather than rules for obeying

“There's a strand of the data viz world that argues that everything could be a bar chart. That's possibly true but

also possibly a world without joy”

Amanda Cox, New York Times

http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hbreditors/2013/03/power_of_visualizations_aha_moment.html

Framework for thinking rather than rules for obeying

The representation and presentation of data to make understanding accessible

My definition...

http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2013/06/appreciating-the-critical-role-of-subject-matter/

Good visualisation makes understanding accessible

https://twitter.com/MaxCRoser/status/580666217142329344

Bad visualisation makes understanding inaccessible

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-19/wall-street-firms-endure-lost-decade-after-goldman-peak-in-2007.html?hootPostID=32a4ad8c4a1454db9676f05959b22c09

Bad visualisation adds no value to the data

http://porostocky.prosite.com/6517/114057/work/infographics | http://hmi.ucsd.edu/howmuchinfo.php http://viz.wtf/post/107628689945/all-your-database-are-belong-to-us | http://viz.wtf/post/107440754050/how-payday-loans-add-up

Bad visualisation tries to decorate data

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/19/upshot/3d-yield-curve-economic-growth.html?smid=pl-share&_r=1&abt=0002&abg=0

There are few (if any) ‘always’ and ‘nevers’ I thought all 3D was bad, why is this 3D visualisation OK?

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/19/upshot/3d-yield-curve-economic-growth.html?smid=pl-share&_r=1&abt=0002&abg=0

There are few (if any) ‘always’ and ‘nevers’ I thought all 3D was bad, why is this 3D visualisation OK?

http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2015/02/visualisation-data-like/

Do we REALLY like it?

http://style.org/deleted/

Constructive critique heightens your convictions

“Chefs are able to more clearly discern what they taste because through constant exposure they have developed

improved senses as well as vocabulary to express and discuss their impressions.”

Oliver Reichenstein, “Learning to see”

Paraphrased from: http://ia.net/blog/learning-to-see/

The importance of establishing your own beliefs and convictions about what is good/

bad, effective/ineffective visualisation

Takeaway #6: Thinking for yourself...

CONTEXTUAL IMAGINATIVE

JOURNALISTIC CRITICAL

ORGANISED CONVICTIONS

Embrace fresh thinking!

Getting this little guy working will make a huge difference!

FRESH THINKING ON COMMUNICATING WITH DATA

Andy Kirk

www.visualisingdata.com @visualisingdata

Thanks for joining today. If you’d like to try Tableau for yourself you can access your free trial at: http://www.tableausoftware.com/trial