Support Analytics Blog

It has been no secret that I have been a big fan of BusinessWeek (BW) over the last few years.  Many of the data visualizations have given me material for this blog whether it’s praise or constructive.  Ever since Bloomberg took over the reigns and redesigned the magazine, the data visualizations have been down right terrible.

As you can clearly see below, the charts and graphs went from mediocre to downright awful.  I never would have looked to BW for innovation on the data visualization front like I would The New York Times, but this material should be embarrassing. 

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I get it that this area isn’t the focus for BW, but at least bring it up to par.   Josh, call me and we’ll get this straightened out.

I have a vacation coming up where I’m going away with my family for an extended period.  On this vacation, I won’t be doing any work, analytics or any work that is data/chart related.  OK, I may end up seeing how many Corona lime wedges on average fit into a a whole lime [pie chart].  There is going to be fun, sun, family time, some tigers, lazy rivers and relaxation.  Scratch that; I forgot I’m going with my 4 and 1 year olds, so there’s bound to be fun and sun, but not so much on the relaxation front.

Now, the point of this post – I have three books related to data, statistics and analytics that are in my queue.  I read these books for work, but also because it’s my passion so I get a pass while on vacation.  What I want to know from you is what book would you like me to tackle first with a review to follow on this blog.  Here are the three books to choose from:

1. Creating More Effective Graphs by Naomi Robbins
2. Analytics at Work by Tom Davenport
3. The Flaw of Averages by Sam Savage

Post the book you want me to review first in the comments section below or you can send me a message!  Thank you!

The image below appeared in the redesigned issue of BusinessWeek after Bloomberg acquired the magazine.  I will honestly say that I studied it for a few minutes and read the text a few times before I really understood what the data was showing. 

I think the psychedelic layout of the bubbles adds a confusing element to the visualization that is unnecessary.  There are a bunch of different ways to show this data that would be more straight forward and easier for the readers to understand.

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Do you think the visualization layout/design adds or takes away from the data?

If you ever sat through a live presentation that contained at least one chart, chances are that you have heard the term “eye chart”.  This is an expression used to make light of the fact that people sitting farther than about two feet away probably can’t see or make out the details of the chart due to its size.  Technically, it refers to the chart that is used by physicians or others to judge a person’s vision.  Personally, I’ve heard this term way too much and it prompted this post.

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Below you will see a stacked column (vertical bars) chart that has nine different segments covering eight months.  I have absolutely nothing against HubSpot and actually think they have some great services, tools and products.  I am simply using their chart to illustrate the problems with stacked bar charts and some alternatives.

I can think of a few reasons off the top of my head as to why people would use stacked bar charts. 

1. To show how each segment changes over time
2. To illustrate parts of the whole at any given time
3. A combination of 1 and 2 above

The problem is that a stacked column chart is not good for either of these requirements.  My feelings on these charts is not really anything new, as I’ve stated before on this post and also this post.  In my opinion, after you get beyond two series with like scales, a stacked column chart is pretty and pretty useless. 

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The two charts below show the S&P 500 Net Income by Sector for both 2008 and 2009 and recently appeared in BusinessWeek.  What really caught my attention is that these column charts are a little bit like a waterfall with the only difference being that these start from zero.  Prior to using the Waterfall chart utility, I created these by hand.  The workaround to get a hidden or shaded set of bars is more difficult than it really needs to be.

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Below you will see my versions of the charts using the same data and Excel.  I didn’t include the gray shaded series because I do not think that it adds any value.  Also, I do not have the text box calling out the title and final value because there is a column at the end that shows what the value is upon finish.

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A special thank you goes to Elissa Fink of Tableau for providing me with a demo of Tableau Public.  With being a big fan of Tableau desktop, it should be no surprise that Tableau Public impressed me for many of the same reasons I like the desktop version.

Today is the official release of Tableau Public and the latest version of Tableau Desktop 5.1.  Below you will find some quotes from today’s press release:

SEATTLE, WA, February 11, 2010 – Tableau Software today launched a new product that brings public data to life on the web. Tableau Public, available for free, lets anyone who posts content to the web easily create interactive visualizations and publish them to blogs, web sites, Twitter feeds or anywhere online. Instead of viewing static charts or tables, Tableau Public lets people answer questions and share data interactively on the web.

Current alternatives for sharing data online are clumsy. Typically, data is pasted into tables and lists, or posted as files or catalogs that are difficult to use. Available at Tableaupublic.com, Tableau Public is helping to solve this challenge – bringing data to life on the web for ordinary people. With its interactive visualizations and dashboards, Tableau Public helps people start conversations based on data that is useful, beautiful and shareable. No special plug-ins are required, all that’s needed to see and use the data is a web browser.

In conjunction with the general availability of Tableau Public, the company is also releasing today Version 5.1 of its Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server product suite. Version 5.1 provides more analytic richness, better publishing, and increased scalability and performance. Analytical features include reference bands that provide context to a user’s analysis, bullet charts to evaluate related data, and intelligent data labels to call out the most critical data. New publishing features include rich formatting, streamlined toolbar design, more filter options, and a flexible layout.

I have yet to try out the newest version, 5.1, but I did see that it will have the ability to produce Stephen Few’s famous Bullet Charts without any tricky workarounds.  I can tell you that I’m excited to start using version 5.1.

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I wanted to take a minute and announce the Support Analytics Facebook Fan site.  The screen shot below shows the link on all of the blog pages and it also shows the fans.  Simply click on the section of the sidebar to become a fan.

Below is a screenshot from the fan site.  One of the reasons I created this site was to bridge the gap between twitter and this blog.  By that I mean the following. Twitter only allows 140 characters, making any kind of meaningful interaction limited.  On the other end, this blog has much lengthier posts.  By now having a Facebook fan page, this will allow another medium to exchange ideas that can be short and quick. 

In the screen shot below, you can see the tabs across the top of the fan page that contain a News tab and Twitter tab.  The News tab streams this blog’s RSS feed to Facebook while the Twitter feed goes to the Twitter tab.  Now all of the information is streamed to one source that many people are already using.

On the Fan page I will be sharing ideas, tips and insights that I may not post here on the blog.  I recently posted a link to a page on Tableau’s new product that will be released soon. Please take a minute to check out the Fan page and become a fan!

In the February 1, 2010 edition of BusinessWeek, I found the illustration shown below.  It certainly contains some good information and data that can be easily read.  My question is, would you consider this a Information Visualization, Data Visualization, Information Graphic, Statistical Graphic, Chart/Graph or something else and why?

Sorry about all the polls lately, but I think this is an easy way to respond without having to comment. 

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Also, please feel free to comment with additional insights.

Note: RSS readers have to go to the website to view the poll.

Not too long ago, I got a tip from someone on Twitter with a link to a site called Verifiable.com.  Upon further investigation, I learned that this site is similar to Manyeyes.com in that you can upload a data set and, using the tools on the site, create data visualizations. 

At first glance, the site seems somewhat plain.  After digging into what the site is about, I quickly learned that they utilize sound and popular theory in the data visualization field.  On their about page, the first line that explains the features is:

“A clean, low-chartjunk philosophy — no shadows, no pie charts, no 3-D bar graphs, just the ink you need. [verifable.com]”

Well, simply reading that peaked my interest because they use similar principles that I follow when creating charts/graphs.  No frills.  I like the fact that you can create charts that don’t have excessive grid lines, shadows, weak labeling and limited charting options.  Below you will see a few examples from their site.  You can also follow the links to see the visualizations in an interactive environment.  As you will see, there is a lot of data (hover over), many different options and some good visuals.  Granted some of the charts I had no idea what they were trying to show, but in general this site gives you a seemingly good tool to apply charting/graphing best practices.

[Interactive version]

[Interactive version]

Verifiable also offers a Pro version of their tool where you can keep your data and visualizations private and receive premium support.  The cost is minimal with the Pro version going for $29.95/year. 

I didn’t try to upload a data set to give the site a full trial, but it definitely looks interesting.  I am not sure how much demand there is for online data visualization using a tool like Verifiable.