Data Visualization Best Practices

Presented at the Congressional Budget Office Lunch talk Dec 2011

Transcript

1. Data Visualization Best Practices VisualizingEconomics.com Catherine Mulbrandon cmulbrandon@gmail.com @cmulbrandon
3. Graphical Vocabulary
4. Graphical Vocabulary Posi%on Length Angle Slope Area Intensity Color Shape Texture
5. Quantitative Perception More accurate Less accurate Posi%on Length Angle Slope Area Intensity Color Shape Texture None
6. Gaming supervisors Coaches and scouts Writers and authors 90,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 Gaming supervisors Coaches and scouts Writers and authors 90,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 Encode Quantitative Values Gaming supervisors Coaches and scouts Writers and authors 80,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 Gaming supervisors Coaches and scouts Writers and authors 90,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000
7. Gaming supervisors Coaches and scouts Writers and authors 90,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 Gaming supervisors Coaches and scouts Writers and authors 90,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 Encode Quantitative Values Gaming supervisors Coaches and scouts Writers and authors 80,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 Gaming supervisors Coaches and scouts Writers and authors 90,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 Posi%on Length Slope Posi%on
8. Data Type Low, Medium, High, Household, Individual, Family Nominal (Categories) Ordinal (Ranking) Quantitative (Numbers) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Posi%on Length Angle Slope Area Intensity Color Shape Texture More accurate Less accurate None
9. Pie Charts Angle Area Area
10. Alternatives to Pie Charts Bar Chart Stacked Bar Chart
11. Stacked Bar Chart 0" 500,000" 1,000,000" 1,500,000" 2,000,000" 2,500,000" 3,000,000" 3,500,000" 4,000,000" 4,500,000" 1" 2" 3" 4" 5" 6" 7" 8" 9" 10"
12. Grouping Items Color Intensity Area Shape
13. Highly Selective Color Intensity Area Shape
14. View Overall Shape Color Intensity Area Shape
15. Highly Associative Color Intensity Area Shape
16. Color: Associative and Selective Color Intensity Area Shape
17. Color Schemes Sequential Qualitative Divergent Low, Medium, High, Household, Individual, Family Negative — None — Positive
18. ColorBrewer2.org
19. Graphic Design Principles
20. Hierarchy Helvetica Light Helvetica Regular Helvetica Bold Line 0.25 px Line 1 px Line 3 px Weight
21. Hierarchy Contrast Color Size Small Big
22. 0" 20,000" 40,000" 60,000" 80,000" Gaming"supervisors" Recrea7on"workers" Photographers" Managers"of"personal"service"workers" Coaches"and"scouts" Mul7Bmedia"ar7sts"and"animators" Art"directors" Fitness"trainers"and"aerobics" Writers"and"authors" Musicians"and"singers" Contrast & Color
23. Position
24. Other Principles Connection Gaming supervisors Coaches and scouts Writers and authors 90,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 Gaming supervisors Coaches and scouts Writers and authors 90,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 Proximity Continuity
25. Enclosure Angle Area Angle Area
26. Axis: Use and Abuse
27. Small Multiples 90,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 Gaming supervisors Photographers Coaches and scouts Art directors Writers and authors 90,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 Gaming supervisors Photographers Coaches and scouts Art directors Writers and authors 90,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 Gaming supervisors Photographers Coaches and scouts Art directors Writers and authors 90,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 Gaming supervisors Photographers Coaches and scouts Art directors Writers and authors Align the Axis to support reading Top to Bottom Left to Right
28. Financial Graphs
29. Distortion of Proportion 80,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 About 50% longer 80,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 About 20% longer
30. Art directors Writers and authors 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 Art directors Writers and authors 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 Distorting the Slope
31. Software
32. Excel
33. Clean Up Excel
34. Clean Up Excel
35. Fastest Growing Art & Entertainment Occupations Average Change 2001–2011 Source: EMSI Complete Employment - 2011.4 Musicians and Singers are the largest occupation with 10% of Art & Entertainment jobs.
36. OmniGraphSketcher
37. 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 $50,000 0 $5000 $10,000 $15,000 $20,000 $25,000 $30,000 $35,000 $40,000 $45,000 Data from MeasuringWorth.com GDP per capita 2005 dollars 1871 1929 Stock Crash GDP per capita adjusted for inflation using 2005 dollars VisualizingEconomics.com WW I Great Depression WW II Korean War Vietnam War Persian Gulf War Iraq War War in Afghanistan Spanish- American War Roaring 20s 1973-74 Arab oil embargo Trendline Internet Stock Bubble 2000 2009 2007 2006 1982 1968 1944 1936 1916 1906 Long-term real growth in US GDP per capita 1987 Stock Crash 1871–2009
40. R Project for Statistical Computing
41. Illustrator
46. Effective Graphics Earn trust by accurately presenting the data Effectively exploit human perception Use the graphical vocabulary appropriately Utilize graphic design principles Avoid visual clutter Provide context though titles, captions, units, and annotations.
47. Bertin’s Three Levels of Reading Source:Tableau Software
48. Elementary Source:Tableau Software
49. Intermediate Source:Tableau Software
50. Overall Source:Tableau Software
51. Further Readings flowingdata.com perceptualedge.com Stephen Few, author of Show Me the Numbers Nathan Yau, author of Visualize This VisualizingEconomics.com Catherine Mulbrandon cmulbrandon@gmail.com @cmulbrandon