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Listening to Data

Daniel O’Neil, Business Analyst @phoenix1189 Kaarin Hoff, Information Architect @kaarinhThe Understanding Group (TUG) @undrstndng

Conversation based, Data driven strategy for better visualizations

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The Understanding Group is an Information Architecture practice dedicated to making things be good.

We work to Understand the goals of your Business and Users, then we architect your information to achieve those goals.

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Kaarin HoffInformation Architect, TUG

Source: http://www.artble.com/artists/johannes_vermeer, http://ffffound.com/home/vvva/found/

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Daniel O’Neil Business Analyst, TUG

Source: http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/2/4/323/F2.expansion

Source: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~phyl/baboon.html

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Visualizations are part of our everyday life

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PURPOSE:To provide a core set of

principles that transcend best practices

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p. 126-139

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422,000

10,000

Show comparisons

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Show explanation

Temperature

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Show multiple variables

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Show information in layers

Main point

More 2

More 3

More

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Show documentation

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Details matter

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Uhh, we’re not here to talk about military history….

True: but the lessons of this visualization persist

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All visualizations:

• Are rhetorical actsAsk deep value questions – what matters? What do we really care about? How are we going to describe our world?

• Are abstractionse.g. Histogram buckets

• Work on multiple dimensionsVisual, cognitive, emotional, analytical

The Common DNA of Visualizations

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Source: http://iqcontent.com/blog/2009/11/dublins-new-subway-system-well-subway-map/

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Source: http://www.tokyometro.jp/en/subwaymap/pdf/routemap_en.pdf

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From book,

The Art of Clear Up

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Source:

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Source: http://rt.uits.iu.edu/visualization/analytics/docs/ttest-docs/ttest1.php

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Conversation Based

Your data has a point of view, and wishes to start a conversation

Core Principle of Presenting Data

Source: https://www.earlymoments.com/dr-seuss/How-to-Use-Dr-Seuss-Book-Clubs/Advanced-Reader-Books/

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Visualizations should be:• Clear

• Useful

• Ethical

• Credible

Realizing the Conversation Principle

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Can someone describe what your chart is trying to do in 2 sentences using simple words?

Better yet, can two people look at the chart and give the same basic explanation?

Pick a model based on your information, not vice-versa.

Clear

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Worldwide Nuclear Weapon Detonations

A Real-Time Map of Births and Deaths

Let’s look at some examples:

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Key data points are visible without relying on interaction

Data is downloadable as a table (assuming interactive data)

Is applicable/appropriate to your audience and your goals

Useful

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Worldwide Nuclear Weapons Detonations

A Real-Time Map of Births and Deaths

Let’s look at those examples again:

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While designing the chart, write down what you are leaving out and review it.

Identify what narrative you are trying to tell and determine if what you are leaving out undermines that narrative.

If a story is too complex to tell in a chart, it may not be true.

Change scale, proportions, etc on the chart to identify possible distortions of the visual data.

Ethical

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Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2011

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A lot of this is an outcome of doing other things right, but there are some things you can do make sure you don’t lose credibility:

• Aesthetic decisions

• Citations

• Proper professional and cultural vernacular for audience (e.g. physicists vs. engineers, dollar vs. euro, children vs. adults)

Credible

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Finding: Between 1990 and 2008 there was a forty-five percent decline in violent crime

Many theories about this:

• Community policing

• Improved economic situation

• “Tough on Crime” and prisons

U.S. Crime Rate Trends

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Community policing happened after initial decline

Crime continued to drop even in a bad economy

Prison population growth largely made up of nonviolent offenders

Credibility problems

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The “Pb” Theory

Source: http://science.howstuffworks.com/lead.htm

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Correlate Related Measures

Source: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline

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Layered Information

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Policy Rhetoric

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Hear the Who

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Resources

• Data Visualization Best Practices by Jen Underwood

• http://www.slideshare.net/idigdata/data-visualization-best-practices-2013

• More on Abstraction by Kaarin• 20 minute version from IA Summit: http://understandinggroup.com/2013/04/abstraction-for-clarity/

• 5 minute version from A2 Ignite UX: http://understandinggroup.com/2013/10/ignite-ux-ann-arbor-abstraction-talk/

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Comments? Thoughts? We’d love to hear from you

www. understandinggroup.com

Daniel O’Neil, @phoenix1189 Kaarin Hoff, @kaarinh