Applying Data Visualization to Business Analytics

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August 10, 2006

Beauty matters.

Edward Tufte in his book "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" talks about Signal to Noise ratio in information visualization. Very powerful way of thinking about information design, removing "chart junk" in favor of clear, to the point, displays. John Snow's map of a cholera epidemic in London is a nice example:

Now - I could argue that the master of the really "to the point" visualizations is not Edward Tufte but really Bill Cleveland in for example his "Visualizing Data"
book. Very powerful ways of showing information, perhaps with a slight statistical bent.

However I think you can actually argue that his approach becomes so ultra clean / stripped down that it close to losing its compelling nature. It's like the difference between a between a Philippe Starck chair and a cheap simple chair bought at Jordan's furniture. Both might be simple and clean, but only one is beautiful.

And beauty matters. Because we want the way we present information to be expressive, exciting, enticing, and engaging. Bringing these two worlds of exactness and excitement is not easy - but it can be done.

Posted by Christopher Ahlberg at August 10, 2006 4:30 PM

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