Charts are a very useful and easy way to present information. The problem is that when done wrong, they can do more damage than good. They can be completely useless or even worse - lie and deceive. Picking the right type of chart for your data is just half way to success. On top of that you’d have to know your way around the data. So, do you have what it takes to create the perfect chart?

1. WARNING
The following charts contain made-up numbers,
unpleasant visualizations and may lead you to
ridiculous conclusions.

2. Charts & visual lies
Elena Levi

3. About me
● Served at 8200
● BI Analysts at Conduit
● BI Lead & product manager at Win
● Head of data at Singular
● Product Manager at Panoply
First Smart Data Warehouse

5. why?

6. Visualisation

7. Data → Insights

8. Data → Insights →Action

9. Benjamin Disraeli
“There are three kinds of lies:
Lies, damned lies, and
statistics”

10. Darrell Huff
“If you torture the data long
enough, it will confess to
anything”

11. Scale Matters

17. Trust Issues

18. Charts that lie – scale matters

19. Charts that lie – scale matters

20. Charts that lie – scale matters

23. Charts that lie – on purpose

24. ‫שקרים‬‫יפים‬ - ‫אבנר‬‫שחר‬‫קשתן‬

25. ‫שקרים‬‫יפים‬ - ‫אבנר‬‫שחר‬‫קשתן‬

26. Charts that lie – on purpose
‫שקרים‬‫יפים‬ - ‫אבנר‬‫שחר‬‫קשתן‬

27. Charts that (just) lie

28. Charts that (just) lie

29. Mistakes

30. Charts that lie by mistake

31. Charts that lie by mistake

32. Charts that lie by mistake

33. Useless Charts

34. Useless charts

35. Useless charts

36. Useless charts

38. Useless charts

39. Useless charts

42. 3D Charts

43. More damage than good

44. More damage than good

45. More damage than good

47. Colors

48. Colors

49. Colors

50. Colors

51. Drill Down

52. Useless charts

55. KPI

64. Best Practices
● Show the right KPI
● use the right Agg (average, min, max)
● Stay in the correct scale
● The Correct type for the job
● Right colors
● Use Title
● Not too much information
● Add threshold or indication when possible

65. Dashboards

70. Data Ink Ratio =
Ink used to present data
Total Ink used on graphics
Edward Tufte

71. Best Practices
● Build around the right KPIs
● Don’t overflow with information
● Sty on a high level and add drill down reports
● Clear sections titles
● No extra graphics so the new person can easily understand
● One number when possible

72. Start Question slideMid

73. Concentration level during a presentation
Start Question slideMid

74. Thank you

75. ● http://getdolphins.com/blog/the-worst-graphs-of-2017/
● https://www.businessinsider.com/the-27-worst-charts-of-all-time-2013-6
● http://charts.strawjackal.org/tag/%D7%A2%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%93%D7%95%D7%AA/
● https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi
Sources

76. Elena Levi
elena.frum@gmail.com
elena@panoply.io