Comments on: A novel way to make tabular data engaging

By: BeGraphic

BeGraphic — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:39:18 +0000

THis can be done for free inside Excel and PowerPoint with BeGraphic addin.

Any data visualization (changes in size, color, angle, border…) can be done with this tool.

Many examples and videos on the website.

Regards

By: Jeff Larche

Jeff Larche — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:57:00 +0000

It’s clearly been a while since I’ve priced Tufte’s books. Chris just emailed me to say the prices are much closer to what you’d expect for a “coffee table book.” As I mentioned to her in that email, these books can’t be cheap to produce. There are tons of color illustrations, on large-format books with high-quality paper.

They’re well worth your investment if you care about visual representation of information.

By: Jeff Larche

Jeff Larche — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:44:17 +0000

Thanks, Bryan, for the link, and the laugh (objects can be shiny, and I too am easily distracted!).

I’m a huge fan of Google’s graphing tools, especially its Motion Charting mechanism for their Spreadsheets app. When I’ve got a good example to show (not one using a client’s propriety info, that is) I’ll share it here.

Thank you for the comment, and by doing so, making the conversation more meaningful for other readers!

By: Jeff Larche

Jeff Larche — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:27:07 +0000

I think I'd recommend starting with the book Envisioning Information. But beware. The book is a gateway drug to his others. And they aren't cheap. The only mercy he shows on us is he hasn't written too many. I also suggest, for a little immediate gratification, his essay in Wired, Powerpoint Is Evil.

By: Chris Quick

Chris Quick — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:04:19 +0000

I’ve seen Tufte’s work mentioned by other bloggers and authors who are exploring better ways of communicating information visually. Can you recommend a good book or essay to start off with for us newbies? Thanks!

Chris

By: Bryan Buchs

Bryan Buchs — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:38:53 +0000

GitHub (source code hosting service) uses “PunchCard” graphs to show a representation of code commits by Day and Hour:

http://github.com/technoweenie/restful-authentication/graphs/punch_card

They use the GoogleCharts API to generate those – it’s a scatter plot (http://code.google.com/apis/chart/types.html#scatter_plot).

I had planned on using the concept in my golf score tracking app, but got distracted by something shiny.

By: Jeff Larche

Jeff Larche — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:43:01 +0000

Thanks, Michael. You’re right that some additional emphasis can be given. As Jennette implied with her tag cloud comparison, font size and boldness might be tried to further convey size.

You’re also right that none of them added to 100%. I recall sifting through the data with Excel to see how I could make the numbers clearer in my own head, and had to assume that incomplete reporting and double-answers for some questions had to account for the lack of tidy sums.

By: Jeff Larche

Jeff Larche — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:24:05 +0000

I agree, Jeanette, that it does resemble the type of comparative information that a tag cloud does.

I’ve actually used variants of tag clouds to display top keywords that people are searching on to find a client’s site. It is SO much more helpful than some numbers next to a list of words. The can see in an instant the most versus the least used keywords to find their site. It makes for far more productive reporting.

By: Michael Deutch

Michael Deutch — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:17:44 +0000

Love it! You can also try playing with font size, boldness, and color to emphasize percentage. One interesting observation I had for both charts was that nothing indicates that 100% is calculated for each row vs. the column.

By: Jeanette Pham

Jeanette Pham — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:51:53 +0000

Reminds me a bit of Topic Cloud results. Certainly conveys more info at a glance for me than the traditionally-listed numbers. Love that out-of-the-box thinking applied to something so established!