Adam's Blogroll: click through to the author's blog
Small changes over time or small differences between categories can easily look insignificant, even if they’re worth noting in real life. Here are chart options for you.
I’m Nathan Yau. This is The Process, the newsletter for FlowingData members that looks closer at how the charts get made.
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Posted by in change, difference, options, small, The Process
The histogram is my favorite chart type to look at distributions, but it’s a tough sell as a communication method. People need a sense of how distributions work before they can make sense of a histogram. Here’s how I (try to) make these misunderstood charts easier to read.
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Posted by in annotation, highlight, The Process
A good chart shows patterns that you otherwise wouldn’t see in a spreadsheet. To some, this means showing all the data at once so that you can see a full trend efficiently, but there are benefits to showing a little bit at a time.
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Posted by in interaction, play, The Process
I collect visualization tools and learning resources and then round them up at the end of each month. Here’s the good stuff for March.
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Posted by in roundup, The Process
If a chart is seen by enough people, someone will call it misleading. Many will agree that it is misleading, and therefore, the chart is terrible and the maker is up to no good. This is the law of the land. There are no exceptions.
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Posted by in misleading, The Process
No single chart type can show every angle of every dataset all the time. Every chart type has its trade-offs. So instead of trying to show everything at once, use multiple views to show things separate.
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Posted by in multiples, simplicity, The Process
Welcome to The Process, the newsletter for FlowingData members that looks closer at how the charts get made. I’m Nathan Yau. The point of visualization is to understand what data is about, which is rarely just about the numbers and almost always about what the data represents.
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Posted by in baseline, point of view, questions, The Process
Welcome to The Process, the newsletter for FlowingData members that looks closer at how the charts get made. I’m Nathan Yau. Every month I collect tools and resources that help you make better charts. Here’s the good stuff for February.
Become a member for access to this — plus tutorials, courses, and guides.
Posted by in roundup, The Process
Welcome to The Process, the newsletter for FlowingData members that looks closer at how the charts get made. I’m Nathan Yau. To decide if values are high or low, sometimes you have to divide the numbers for a relative comparison instead of an absolute one. You have to normalize the data.
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Posted by in comparison, denominator, The Process
Welcome to The Process, the newsletter for FlowingData members that looks closer at how the charts get made. I’m Nathan Yau. People like to judge charts by pointing out all the things that are wrong. It’s an easy thing to do, because no visualization can do everything well. But this approach can be limiting in practice.
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Posted by in criticism, The Process