Whenever a data visualization blogger(*) don’t agree with your graphs, his main reproach will be that your graph has “gaudy and distracting visual effects“.
* : Should I say “expert” just because the blogger spends time writing posts and exchanging comments on his friends’ blogs? Does speaking louder on the Web makes you clever ? Was Big Mouth Joe smarter than Albert Einstein ?
.
This blogger would be right if we were robots. Unfortunately for him (and his opinion presented as a theory), we are human; that is to say that :
- we like shiny colors (unless you are mormon)
- we like beauty (plastic surgery is a profitable market, isn’t it ?)
- we are animal-oriented (Porsche cars ads still show attractive women)
- we like new things (difficulties to find gadget stores around you ?)
- we don’t store information as quick as an hard disk
(ads for washing powders always repeat 7 times the brand’s name)
So diverting “the audience’s attention away from the data” can be a difficulty, but will never be a simple problem of lens. That may be the reason why we use advertising agencies or communication people… and not engineers or IT guys to show ideas and broadcast information.
.
Actually the issue is the audience (not the blogger’s opinion) :
- How much time does the audience members have to catch the information ?
- Who are they ? Why are they here ? What could make them move ?
- What fits their opinion in your message (real experts could speak about Semiotics)
Until now the only way to be sure about what is received is testing (opinion poll, eye tracking systems…), even if neuro-marketing is coming with new concepts. But this will be a future post.
