1. 1. Stop Making Pie Charts! An opinionated guide to the craft of data visualisation Robin Gower Open Data Manchester 30.06.15 infonomics.ltd.uk @robsteranium
2. 2. Motivation Components Perception Guidance
3. 3. Motivation
4. 4. CC BY 2.0 Flickr Procilas Moscas Data raw symbols
5. 5. CC BY 2.0 Flickr Procilas Moscas Information meaning from context
6. 6. Copyright | Denise Schmandt-Besserat (1977) Visualisation representation of the abstract
7. 7. CC BY SA 4.0 Robin Gower 2015 Encoding data aesthetics
8. 8. How similar are these sets? Anscombe (1973) Graphs in Statistical Analysis
9. 9. How similar are these sets? Anscombe (1973) Graphs in Statistical Analysis
10. 10. How similar are these sets? Anscombe (1973) Graphs in Statistical Analysis
11. 11. Components
12. 12. Variables Trafford MBC 2015
13. 13. Transformations Trafford MBC 2015 with Infonomics
14. 14. CC BY-SA 2.0 Flickr Guian Bolisay Scales mapping to a common unit
15. 15. Yahoo Finance via the Generalist Scales mapping to a common unit
16. 16. Coordinates mapping to the display CC BY 2.0 Flickr Carsten Frenzl 2013
17. 17. Coordinates mapping to the display DWP 2012 JSA Claimants in the North West,
18. 18. Coordinates mapping to the display Distribution of Cultural Venues Infonomics
19. 19. Elements aesthetic attributes this page is intentionally left blank
20. 20. Guides to provide context Out-of-Copyright Ordnance Survey 1887
21. 21. Perception
22. 22. Pre-attentive Processing 3.14159265358979 3238462643383279 5028841971693993 7510582097494459 2307816406286208 9986280348253421
23. 23. Pre-attentive Processing 3.14159265358979 3238462643383279 5028841971693993 7510582097494459 2307816406286208 9986280348253421
24. 24. Decoding accuracy Cleveland, McGill (1986) An experiment in
25. 25. Decoding accuracy Cleveland, McGill (1986) An experiment in
26. 26. Ranking of Perceptual Tasks Mackinley 1986 Automating the Design of
27. 27. CC BY 1.0 WikiMedia Commons Shutz 2007
28. 28. CC BY 1.0 WikiMedia Commons Shutz 2007
29. 29. Visualization: Using Computer Graphics to
30. 30. Stephen Few http://www.perceptualedge.com
31. 31. Aesthetics Position Copyright Christian Rudder, Dataclysm
32. 32. Aesthetics Position Polish Central Examination Board Matura Test
33. 33. Aesthetics Colour depends on context
34. 34. Aesthetics Colour not the same to everyone
35. 35. Aesthetics Colour limits to perception XKCD Colour Survey 2010
36. 36. Aesthetics Colour reach for a palette Brewer Colour Palette
37. 37. Gestalt laws of grouping proximity
38. 38. Gestalt laws of grouping similarity
39. 39. Gestalt laws of grouping closure
40. 40. Gestalt laws of grouping continuation
41. 41. 3D is bad (on 2D displays) CC BY SA 4.0 Robin Gower 2014
42. 42. http://blog.jgc.org/2009/08/please-dont-use-
43. 43. Perspective Distortion CC BY SA 4.0 WikiMedia Commons SharkD 2007
44. 44. Perception vs Perspective
45. 45. GuidanceGuidance
46. 46. Chart Junk 3d pies are a great way to deceive 2008 Macworld Expo via Engadget
47. 47. Chart Junk you can lie with line charts too Florida Dept of Law Enforcement via Reuters
48. 48. Chart Junk improves memorability Bateman et al (2010) Useful Junk? via
49. 49. Data-Ink Ratio Tufte (1983) The Visual Display of Quantitative Data-ink Ratio Data-ink Total ink used to print the graphic 1 proportion of graphic that can be erased = = proportion of a graphics ink devoted to the non-redundant display of data-information =
50. 50. Data-Ink Ratio - Example CC BY NC 2.0 Tim Bray
51. 51. Data-Ink Ratio http://darkhorseanalytics.com/blog/data-
52. 52. Over-plotting Open Government License DataGM 2013
53. 53. Over-plotting - smaller Open Government License DataGM 2013
54. 54. Over-plotting - transparency Open Government License DataGM 2013
55. 55. Over-plotting logarithmic scale Open Government License DataGM 2013
56. 56. Over-plotting binning Open Government License DataGM 2013
57. 57. Sparklines Robin Gower (2009) Infonomics AutoReporter
58. 58. Oliver Byrne's Euclid 1847
59. 59. Small Multiples IKEA discovered via Tufte twitter
60. 60. Small Multiples 200 Calories wisegeek.com
61. 61. Jason Lockwood 2012 Perceptual Edge
62. 62. Stop Making Pie Charts! An opinionated guide to the craft of data visualisation Robin Gower Open Data Manchester 30.06.15 infonomics.ltd.uk @robsteranium