What is the purpose of blogging about visualization? Is it to make fun of the bad stuff? Is it to point to pretty things? Is it to explain why things are good or bad? Is it to expand the landscape of ideas and break new ground? Or is it to discuss matters at great length that ultimately don’t matter all that much?
I criticize things, and I think it’s important to do that. I don’t regret any of my postings, however strong they may have been, and however mean they may have sounded. It was all done in good faith and with the intent to point out issues and get people to pay attention.
But increasingly, I’m questioning the thinking that some of that criticism is coming from. I’m not arguing against any particular issue people like to bring up, but I am starting to wonder how much of it is simply coming out of narrow-mindedness and stubbornness. How much of it would be obviated by sitting back, taking a deep breath, and trying to see things from a different angle?
This is not just a question of tone and intensity, but one that goes much deeper: how much do we really know? When you start to ask that question in visualization, it becomes clear very quickly how shockingly little we actually really understand. Going on and on about pie charts? Point to a paper that’s actually showing that they’re bad! Yes, such a paper exists. But how many studies have shown the same thing? Not that many. And it gets much worse for things like 3D bar charts, etc. There is very little support for the religious zealotry with which we like to damn these things.
Then there is the question of different goals. There isn’t just one use for visualization, and things created for different purposes need to be judged against different standards. It’s all about trade-offs and making decisions. An audience of readers on the web is going to need a different approach than an audience of experts who know the data really well and have a vested interest in digging deeper. An interactive piece on a news media website will need to be much more compelling than a corporate dashboard if anybody’s going to actually bother doing something with it. There is not just one purpose, or one audience, or one way to do things.
It’s encouraging to see the huge interest in visualization. And it’s even more encouraging to see some of the recent and upcoming work on rhetoric, persuasion, and related questions. Because it matters. Communication matters. Data matters. Visualization matters.
Discussing visualization needs to matter too. But it can only do so if it comes from a place of understanding, respect, and an open mind.
Excellent post Robert and congratulations on 8 years of invaluable service for the field. At some point when I get time I’m working on a post about some of the issues you’ve raised there about things we do know, things we don’t know: the blurred lines that are both the failing and the attraction of the field. Here’s to another 8 years!
Congrats!! Keep filling the Web with your posts! :-)
Robert:
Congratulations on finishing 8 years of eagereyes. I totally agree with you on the topic and more than ofter people say that they have been doing things the same way for years and dont like the change. If one does not understand and find ways that they could improve, I guess they will never learn.
I am also glad to see that (with the help of your blogs and from Alberto Cairo and many data viz gurus), analysts are looking at presenting the information the right way.
Thank you.
..kk
Hopeful you will continue with eagereyes. Smiles… Theresa-Marie
Robert, congrats. Eight years qualify you as one of the tribe’s wise men.
I strongly disagree with you regarding that supposed “religious zealotry”. Most of the time it’s just crystal-clear laziness (you have to have an opinion and echoing arguments against pie charts is easy). Some people see it as a rite of passage: I hate pie charts, so I’m not a boy/girl (datavis-wise) anymore. By the way, “the only worse design than a pie chart is several of them” but what if we call them “small multiples”?
There is no one-size-fits-all datavis. The tools, the skills, the task, the audience. They all matter. We all forget them too often. We can’t blame people for using pie charts and are unable to offer them a better option within their (limited) design skills, the tools they can use and the processes they have no control of.
But that’s a discussion for tomorrow. Today, we celebrate..