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In Defense of Imprecision: Why Traditional Approaches to Data Visualization are Changing
- 1. In Defense of Imprecision Why Traditional Approaches to Data Visualization are Changing © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All rights reserved. Boston Data Festival 2014 Mark Schindler
- 2. ACCURACY AND PRECISION © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 2 rights reserved.
- 3. 1. Business data may not be precise to begin with • Not captured in ideal lab conditions • May be flaky (sensors not working…) • May be soft/unstructured • Opinions, narrative… • Merged from multiple systems that may disagree • May require interpretation (cultural issues?) 2. Precision may not be desirable • Too much precision can produce clutter and impede understanding • “The forest for the trees” © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 3 rights reserved.
- 4. 1. Decisions are often represented as rational OODA loop* © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 4 rights reserved. Observe the collection of data by means of the senses Orient the analysis and synthesis of data to form one's current mental perspective Decide the determination of a course of action based on one's current mental perspective Act the physical playing-out of decisions *developed by military strategist and USAF Colonel John Boyd-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd_(military_strategist)
- 5. 2. Emotions are necessary to help us make decisions Somatic marker hypothesis Antonio Damasio Without emotion, decision-making is virtually impossible. © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 5 rights reserved. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Somatic_marker_hypothesis
- 6. 3. Subjectivity and bias are desirable* Why? We evaluate everything in relation to our expectations, goals and our capacity to act • Expectations • “It took 4 days for the shipment to arrive” but we understand it differently based on our expectations: • “I was promised it in 2 days, it’s 2 days late dammit!” • “I thought it would be 8 days, this is fantastic!” • Goals • We were hoping to get the majority of the votes, we actually got 65%! • Capacity to act • We had budgeted $1.5M for this project. Now I’m understanding it’s going to cost $2M © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 6 rights reserved. *In the context of decision-making…
- 7. for decision making CONTEXT TRUMPS CONTENT
- 8. the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 8 rights reserved.
- 9. Context © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 9 rights reserved. Orient the analysis and synthesis of data to form one's current mental perspective Observe the collection of data by means of the senses Decide the determination of a course of action based on one's current mental perspective Act the physical playing-out of decisions
- 10. Goals may precede the process Observe the collection of data by means of the senses © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 10 rights reserved. Decide the determination of a course of action based on one's current mental perspective Act the physical playing-out of decisions Orient the analysis and synthesis of data to form one's current mental perspective Goals
- 11. Principle Maximize context Minimize attention load © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 11 rights reserved.
- 12. Minimize attention demand http://darkhorseanalytics.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/data-ink.gif © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 12 rights reserved.
- 13. Context and Attention Demand © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 13 rights reserved.
- 14. 1. Normative context 2. Metaphoric context 3. Personalized context © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 14 rights reserved.
- 15. 1. Normative context 2. Metaphoric context 3. Personalized context © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 15 rights reserved.
- 16. Example: Sales figures for 5 regions 16 What does this tell me? Northeast Southeast Southwest Pacific Midwest
- 17. Normative context added 17 Sales goal Northeast Southeast Southwest Pacific Midwest
- 18. Difference highlighted 18 Some regions exceeded the sales goal Northeast Southeast Southwest Pacific Midwest
- 19. Difference highlighted 19 Some failed to make it Northeast Southeast Southwest Pacific Midwest
- 20. Question: Which regions are lagging? 20 Northeast Southeast Southwest Pacific Midwest SW, MW and Pac territories are, on average, 12% behind plan
- 21. What is the right amount of normative context? © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 21 rights reserved.
- 22. Too little? © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 22 rights reserved.
- 23. Too much? © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 23 rights reserved.
- 24. About right? © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 24 rights reserved.
- 25. 1. Normative context 2. Metaphoric context 3. Personalized context © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 25 rights reserved.
- 26. Metaphor
- 27. © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 27 rights reserved.
- 28. Metaphor © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 28 rights reserved.
- 29. Rising Tides Susan Israel
- 30. Rising Tides
- 31. Rising Tides
- 32. 1. Normative context 2. Metaphoric context 3. Personalized context © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 32 rights reserved.
- 42. Rent v Buy calculator http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html?_r=0 © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 42 rights reserved.
- 43. © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 43 rights reserved.
- 44. © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 44 rights reserved.
- 45. © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 45 rights reserved.
- 46. © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 46 rights reserved.
- 47. © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 47 rights reserved.
- 48. © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 48 rights reserved.
- 49. © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 49 rights reserved.
- 50. © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 50 rights reserved.
- 51. © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 51 rights reserved.
- 52. Questions to ask ourselves • What is the right kind of context, for the situation at hand? • Are we seeing a meaningful pattern that helps us understand what to do? • Have we removed all unnecessarily distracting data ink? • Would it make sense to sacrifice some precision and objectivity to get to a picture that aligns and motivates us? • Are we seeing what’s really important and relevant to us and our situation? © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 52 rights reserved.
- 53. Thank You © Copyright 2014 GroupVisual.io. All 53 rights reserved. Mark Schindler mschindler@groupvisual.io @glyphr