Depicting Data (week thirteen)
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Transcript Depicting Data (week thirteen)
Depicting Data
Making it Comprehesnible
Depicting Data (adapted in part from Mandeville)
Graphical displays help make sense of raw data.
Can be an aid in analysis
Should enhance overall communication
Involves choices about what/how to display
What do you want to say? Are you trying to inform? Persuade?
Who do you want to say it to?
Does data help to tell the story?
Depicting Data
Should tell a story (i.e. trends over time, patterns)
Relate back to the whole
Offers possibility of projections and comparisons
Common Types of Visuals
Graphs/histograms
Bar charts
Pie charts
Line charts
http://www.statcan.ca/english/edu/power/ch9/piecharts/pie.htm
Pictures/Concept maps
Data mapping
Tables
Improving Communication
Double-check data
Keep the message simple
Visuals should be able to speak for themselves if done well
Be sure sequence is logical
Remember- different displays can impact message
Choosing Displays
If data is mostly qualitative/textual tables are often
preferable
Quantitative data can often be best displayed in histograms
and graphs
In particular, quantitative data with 5 or more data points are
usually best displayed in graphs
Choosing Displays (Census)
Choosing Displays (Census)
Effect of Choices on Displays
Old Faithful
http://www.stat.sc.edu/~west/javahtml/Histogram.html
Depicting data
Wicked Awesome Examples
Info Maps
Interactive Displays
Achieving Visual Excellence
http://www.visual-
literacy.org/stairs_of_viz/stairs_of_viz.html
Periodic Table of Visualization Methds
http://www.visual-
literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html
Baby Name Finder
http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#ms=false&exact
=false
References
Visual Literacy
http://www.visual-literacy.org/pages/documents.htm
Tables vs. graphs
http://www.ncsu.edu/labwrite/res/tablevsgraph/res-
tablevsgraph.html
Visual displays of data
www.nhhealthpolicyinstitute.unh.edu/ec/ppt/03_visual.ppt