In a recent article in BusinessWeek, Maria Popova discusses the work of Aaron Koblin and how data visualization is becoming a more prominent part of the business strategies of several companies. Stephen Few took a look at it are saw that while it’s a well-intentioned article, there are several problem with it and sets out to correct them in his blog.
“Has nothing to do with pie charts and bar graphs”? I would gladly support any effort to dismiss pie charts (with a few exceptions), but the notion that bar graphs and other traditional displays of quantitative data have nothing to do with data visualization is just plain silly. No one who understands data visualization and has done any work in the field would make such a statement, nor would they go on to say that unlike quantitative graphs, “data visualization…is an interpretation, a different way to look at and think about data that often exposes complex pattern or correlations.”
It’s a well thought-out piece with several key points. Plus, it’s signed.
via Visual Business Intelligence – Data Visualization: Keeping the Story Straight.
