BeGraphic, the data visualization tool

Playing with the title of the famous book “Who moved my cheese?”, I’d like to speak about Truth inside data visualization :
(As everybody, I can tell you that the single Truth is… mine)

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Can you tell me why you make charts and graphs ?

• “Because it’s my job to generate them every month” would be a sad answer.
  Because with the PDCA best practice(*), your work should also be to analyze the data and even to go further by adding title and comments.
  * : the Plan-Do-Check-Act model is also known as Deming circle, learned at the Baldrige university.
• “I have no idea”.
  Nothing can be done for you.
• “Because I want to move my audience” shows that you prioritize efficiency in order to make your opinion being accepted.

Usually graphics are used because they are powerful actionable tools to communicate information. In this way, Gene Zelazny speaks about “author’s intention”.

Therefore where is the truth ? The only truth might be that you want people to react.

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So your choice is between knowing the communication rules and being manipulated by them. Here are some examples :

• showing blue color is made to relax people (think about the famous blue screen for Microsoft Windows fatal error) or mammals (a horse calms down quicker in a blue painted stalls).
  Proven by Mandel N. & Johnson E; in Journal of Consumer Research; 2002 september + Johannes Itten; in The Elements of Color; 1970 + Gueguen N., “The effect of glass color in evaluation of the thirst-quenching quality of a beverage” in Current Psychology Letters, 11, 2, 1-8
  
• Adding fast pace music promotes memorization.
  From Gueguen N. “on-line Experiments” in “Methods of observation and experimentation”; 2004.
• keeping the picture integrity (shape ratio) might mislead your audience when enlarged
  http://eagereyes.org/basics/Linear-vs-Quadratic-Change.html
• … and I don’t speak about the obvious manichean opposition between White (e.g.: the young and beautiful virgin Princess Leia) and Black (e.g.: Darth Vader the villain).

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So the search for truth in information representation is insane, but efficiency is the attainable target.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 8:10 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.