FISH 6002: Week 10 - Figures for Sci Comm

Figures for sci comm

Transcript

1. Week 10: Figures for Science Communication FISH 6000: Science Communication for Fisheries Brett Favaro 2017 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
2. Making graphs for non-scientists is similar to making graphs for scientists The same rules about data density, data:ink ratio apply The same rules about eliminating jargon apply But: Never let your desire to decorate distort the data!
3. Graph design defines our understanding of issues Rose and Rowe (2015) DFO (2016) Both depictions are true… do they change your interpretation?
4. https://ecologyaction.ca/press-release/eco-certification-endangered-cod-population-undermines-credibility-marine-stewardship Sometimes, sci-comm figures are simply annotations of plots from science papers
5. https://www.nationalob server.com/2016/12/01/ opinion/opinion- trudeaus-co2-scorecard- update
6. https://www.seattletimes.com/s eattle-news/homeless-in- seattle-as-wealth-in-king- county-has-boomed-so-has-the- population-on-the-streets/ Flow maps
7. https://twitter.com/Dialo gSustainab/status/86857 2526082797569 How to make one in R: https://stackoverflow.com/ questions/16112162/graph -flow-chart-of-transition- from-states
9. https://twitter.com/sear ch?src=typd&q=%23dat aviz
11. http://www.smh.com.au/comment/im- worried-having-a-baby-will-make- climate-change-worse-20170314- guxtqq.html
14. https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/federal/2019/results/ By Mark Gargul - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83245149
15. https://twitter.com/Allister_Crow/status/933000138552901632 https://twitter.com/anttilip/status/1033342041474969601 Animations and Enhancements https://medium.com/inborn-experience/vr-dataviz-41ef0dc879c Auditory plots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xB5KGkYq2E
16. Bad
17. Sketchy axes
18. https://twitter.com/MarkJDoran/status/887757196267835393
20. https://qz.com/418083/its-ok-not-to-start-your-y-axis-at-zero/ “We make thousands of charts a year at Quartz, and when we receive complaints about them, it’s usually that the y- axis doesn’t start at zero. Their point is that truncating the y-axis, as we often do in line charts, exaggerates what the data really say. Some people consider it a maxim that the y-axis should always be zeroed. They think to do otherwise amounts to lying. But these complaints are wrong. Charts should convey information and make a point. We make charts to illustrate ideas that have context beyond their x- and y-axes. Forcing the y-axis to start at zero can do just as much to obscure and confuse the point as the opposite.”
21. Truncate the y-axis when zero values are ridiculous. https://qz.com/418083/its-ok-not-to-start-your-y-axis-at-zero/
22. Use a zeroed y-axis when it doesn’t matter. Truncate the y-axis when zero values are ridiculous. “If doing so doesn’t obscure the point your chart is trying to make, or muddle the information, it’s often a good idea.” This version masks a large absolute change https://qz.com/418083/its-ok-not-to-start-your-y-axis-at-zero/
23. Use a zeroed y-axis when it doesn’t matter. Truncate the y-axis when zero values are ridiculous. “If doing so doesn’t obscure the point your chart is trying to make, or muddle the information, it’s often a good idea.” Always use a zeroed y-axis with column and bar charts. Because BAR HEIGHT = DATA https://qz.com/418083/its-ok-not-to-start-your-y-axis-at-zero/
24. Use a zeroed y-axis when it doesn’t matter. Truncate the y-axis when zero values are ridiculous. “If doing so doesn’t obscure the point your chart is trying to make, or muddle the information, it’s often a good idea.” Always use a zeroed y-axis with column and bar charts. Because BAR HEIGHT = DATA https://qz.com/418083/its-ok-not-to-start-your-y-axis-at-zero/ Never use a zeroed axis on a log scale.
25. Decoration undermines interpretability, or is inappropriate
27. https://twitter.com/meneerharmsen/status/917635784886444032
29. https://twitter.com/CBinsights/status/891594249988452352 !?!
30. https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/838720989991223297
33. Fully uninterpretable
34. https://twitter.com/ticokilt/status/923261833468932099 Scicomm figures should stand alone and be readily sharable, even out of context
35. https://twitter.com/EnabledHQ/status/918271857199079424
36. Flat-out BS
37. The next few slides are from Media Matters: https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2012/10/01/a-history-of-dishonest-fox-charts/190225 No Y (and scaled wrong) Scary, meaningless shaded area Misleading title (it’s unemployment rate)
39. Bad #Scicomm figures often cherrypick relevant data
45. Activity https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisugly/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/ Go to: (In pairs/3’s) Find a graph that is bad. Using the principles you learned in class, explain why it is bad Post both plots to Teams. I’ll put them up on the big screen. You will present your analysis Find a graph that is good. Using principles you learned in class, explain why it is good Prep time = 15 min(ish) Presentations = 15 min total(ish)
46. Animations Animations add a “third axis” to plots. Most journals don’t accept dynamic images… but this is great for Sci Comm Again, animation should not be a decoration – it should facilitate understanding
47. Examples of animations Tutorial 1: https://www.datanovia.com/en/blog/gganimate-how-to-create-plots-with-beautiful-animation-in-r/#demo-dataset Tutorial 2: https://gganimate.com/articles/gganimate.html https://flowingdata.com/
48. https://github.com/thomasp85/gganimate Go to Week 10 R project