6 ms·

Towards a Theory of Bullshit Visualization [pdf]

91 points by polm23 5y ago

OliverJones 5y ago
With respect, this author misunderstands Edward Tufte's use of the term "Chart junk." Chart junk isn't just pointless decoration on charts. It's also misleading or missing scales, deceptive or inept ways of representing data, and so forth.
- kristjansson 5y ago
  Of course Tufte's body of work a whole, and VDQI in particular address those issues, but chartjunk is, in my reading, a specific and limited complaint. His leading two examples are unintended moiré effect in cross hatching unnecessary grid lines. His third (the duck) is a bit more nebulous, but I read it as any sort of overly cute “we can so we did” effect on a visualization. The mortal sins of data visualization misrepresent the data; the venal sin of chartjunk distracts from the data.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
aaron695 5y ago
The recent/many old "Submarine cable map rendered onto a globe" is a good example of this. If there existed a good digital globe you could have in your house I'd have it as one of the skins, because it looks cool, but it is useless for learning about the true topography. Or a more obvious example the stupid sliding photos the media use. Before and after a storm or whatever. Actually hiding the data from you to get your dopamine up from making you slide to try and see it. Which if you view the media as just entertainment is ok.
spenrose 5y ago
"In this unhinged rant, I lay out my suspicion that a lot of visualiza- tions are bullshit: charts that do not have even the common decency to intentionally lie but are totally unconcerned about the state of the world or any practical utility. I suspect that bullshit charts take up a large fraction of the time and attention of actual visualization pro- ducers and consumers, and yet are seemingly absent from academic research into visualization design. ... It is my contention that many (most?) visualizations are bullshit in either the Frankfurt sense of attempting to persuade while being totally disconnected from notions of truths about the world, or in the Graeber sense of being created for no readily apparent purpose and to no real useful end. When they inform, these bullshit charts do so in the most superficial and unsatisfying ways— for instance, a bar chart might tell me that so-and-so many widgets were sold during a particular period of time"
- Tarq0n 5y ago
  > "for instance, a bar chart might tell me that so-and-so many widgets were sold during a particular period of time" Funny, considering that's a core part of Tableau's value proposition.
  - vanderZwan 5y ago
    If their product becomes saturated with bullshit charts it will hurt them in the long run. Also, it's a sign that at the very least this person working there genuinely cares about the product they're selling, so that's good
kowlo 5y ago
I feel this would have been more suitable as a blog post rather than a two-column layout under a "research" subdomain. I wonder if "Tableau Research" has a rigorous peer-review process for its research publications.
- w-j-w 5y ago
  I was almost wondering if that was going to be the punchline of this paper. "Surprise, we tricked you with an academic format into taking an opinion piece more seriously than you should have, further proving the point we are trying to make"
- sk5t 5y ago
  The layout and URL are part of the joke. The article opens with "In this unhinged rant"--I really don't think this is any sort of attempt to fool the reader.
raphlinus 5y ago
A more sophisticated exploration of this topic is Calling Bullshit[1], by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West. That's a book, but the linked website also has a lot of freely available resources. It's been taught as a college course - week 6 is data visualization. [1]: https://www.callingbullshit.org/ https://www.callingbullshit.org/
AlbertCory 5y ago
So disappointed :) I was hoping this was going to be a visualization OF bullshit, not a rant about bullshit visualizations. All seriousness aside, Correll fails to realize that the layout, length, and organization of your text are also forms of visualization, and at those, he fails completely. "It is my contention that many (most?) visualizations are bullshit in either the Frankfurt sense of attempting to persuade while being totally disconnected from notions of truths about the world, or in the Graeber sense of being created for no readily apparent purpose and to no real useful end." So he's shown us some erudition by throwing in Frankfurt & Graeber. Whoopee. When he mentions Tufte, a pioneer and a giant in his field, he's dismissive. All that said, there is some worthwhile stuff in here. He needs to study The Elements of Style, hire an editor, and reduce it to a readable three pages or so, single-column.
- pc86 5y ago
  Have you ever read an academic paper? This is a pretty bog standard layout.
  - AlbertCory 5y ago
    Indeed I have. Academic papers -- the gold standard for readability! Said no one, ever.
deleted 5y ago
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rjuyal 5y ago
Talking about bullshit visualizations I think this should top the chart: https://cms.qz.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Modi_Chart.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=2200&h=1238 https://cms.qz.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Modi_Chart.jpg... https://qz.com/india/1388030/indias-bjp-peddled-a-prime-example-of-chartjunk-to-its-millions-of-followers/ https://qz.com/india/1388030/indias-bjp-peddled-a-prime-exam...
- aaron695 5y ago
  No, this is not what's being talked about. That's a deceptive chart, not their idea of Bullshit Visualization's. It's an example of the minority of bad charts, as your link shows it gets jumped on quick. This from your article is a better example - https://theatlas.com/charts/HkBllCLO7 https://theatlas.com/charts/HkBllCLO7 What does that mean? Is it CPI? Is it consistent with worlds prices? Because of inflation prices go up over time. It goes up over time. Is the chart saying anything? Here's a good example of Bullshit Visualization's - https://xkcd.com/1138/ https://xkcd.com/1138/ It's things you'll see in the media/PR Journal articles that are nothing but look pretty and give a story a feel of authority when it shouldn't.
gavinray 5y ago
Thanks for sharing this, gave me a smile and a good chuckle. Some other people who are knowledgeable in the domain have posted that there might be some rigor issues. But I think a lot of us can empathize with the feeling of "No you idiot, that's not how you use that at all!" when it comes to some area we know more about than the average person. I'm pretty sure my car mechanic winces every time I bring my vehicle back into the shop. That's what I pay him for I guess.

91 points by polm23 5y ago

With respect, this author misunderstands Edward Tufte's use of the term "Chart junk." Chart junk isn't just pointless decoration on charts. It's also misleading or missing scales, deceptive or inept ways of representing data, and so forth.

kristjansson 5y ago
Of course Tufte's body of work a whole, and VDQI in particular address those issues, but chartjunk is, in my reading, a specific and limited complaint. His leading two examples are unintended moiré effect in cross hatching unnecessary grid lines. His third (the duck) is a bit more nebulous, but I read it as any sort of overly cute “we can so we did” effect on a visualization. The mortal sins of data visualization misrepresent the data; the venal sin of chartjunk distracts from the data.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

aaron695 5y ago

The recent/many old "Submarine cable map rendered onto a globe" is a good example of this. If there existed a good digital globe you could have in your house I'd have it as one of the skins, because it looks cool, but it is useless for learning about the true topography. Or a more obvious example the stupid sliding photos the media use. Before and after a storm or whatever. Actually hiding the data from you to get your dopamine up from making you slide to try and see it. Which if you view the media as just entertainment is ok.

spenrose 5y ago

"In this unhinged rant, I lay out my suspicion that a lot of visualiza- tions are bullshit: charts that do not have even the common decency to intentionally lie but are totally unconcerned about the state of the world or any practical utility. I suspect that bullshit charts take up a large fraction of the time and attention of actual visualization pro- ducers and consumers, and yet are seemingly absent from academic research into visualization design. ... It is my contention that many (most?) visualizations are bullshit in either the Frankfurt sense of attempting to persuade while being totally disconnected from notions of truths about the world, or in the Graeber sense of being created for no readily apparent purpose and to no real useful end. When they inform, these bullshit charts do so in the most superficial and unsatisfying ways— for instance, a bar chart might tell me that so-and-so many widgets were sold during a particular period of time"

Tarq0n 5y ago
> "for instance, a bar chart might tell me that so-and-so many widgets were sold during a particular period of time" Funny, considering that's a core part of Tableau's value proposition.
- vanderZwan 5y ago
  If their product becomes saturated with bullshit charts it will hurt them in the long run. Also, it's a sign that at the very least this person working there genuinely cares about the product they're selling, so that's good

kowlo 5y ago

I feel this would have been more suitable as a blog post rather than a two-column layout under a "research" subdomain. I wonder if "Tableau Research" has a rigorous peer-review process for its research publications.

w-j-w 5y ago
I was almost wondering if that was going to be the punchline of this paper. "Surprise, we tricked you with an academic format into taking an opinion piece more seriously than you should have, further proving the point we are trying to make"
sk5t 5y ago
The layout and URL are part of the joke. The article opens with "In this unhinged rant"--I really don't think this is any sort of attempt to fool the reader.

raphlinus 5y ago

A more sophisticated exploration of this topic is Calling Bullshit[1], by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West. That's a book, but the linked website also has a lot of freely available resources. It's been taught as a college course - week 6 is data visualization. [1]: https://www.callingbullshit.org/ https://www.callingbullshit.org/

AlbertCory 5y ago

So disappointed :) I was hoping this was going to be a visualization OF bullshit, not a rant about bullshit visualizations. All seriousness aside, Correll fails to realize that the layout, length, and organization of your text are also forms of visualization, and at those, he fails completely. "It is my contention that many (most?) visualizations are bullshit in either the Frankfurt sense of attempting to persuade while being totally disconnected from notions of truths about the world, or in the Graeber sense of being created for no readily apparent purpose and to no real useful end." So he's shown us some erudition by throwing in Frankfurt & Graeber. Whoopee. When he mentions Tufte, a pioneer and a giant in his field, he's dismissive. All that said, there is some worthwhile stuff in here. He needs to study The Elements of Style, hire an editor, and reduce it to a readable three pages or so, single-column.

pc86 5y ago
Have you ever read an academic paper? This is a pretty bog standard layout.
- AlbertCory 5y ago
  Indeed I have. Academic papers -- the gold standard for readability! Said no one, ever.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

rjuyal 5y ago

Talking about bullshit visualizations I think this should top the chart: https://cms.qz.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Modi_Chart.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=2200&h=1238 https://cms.qz.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Modi_Chart.jpg... https://qz.com/india/1388030/indias-bjp-peddled-a-prime-example-of-chartjunk-to-its-millions-of-followers/ https://qz.com/india/1388030/indias-bjp-peddled-a-prime-exam...

aaron695 5y ago
No, this is not what's being talked about. That's a deceptive chart, not their idea of Bullshit Visualization's. It's an example of the minority of bad charts, as your link shows it gets jumped on quick. This from your article is a better example - https://theatlas.com/charts/HkBllCLO7 https://theatlas.com/charts/HkBllCLO7 What does that mean? Is it CPI? Is it consistent with worlds prices? Because of inflation prices go up over time. It goes up over time. Is the chart saying anything? Here's a good example of Bullshit Visualization's - https://xkcd.com/1138/ https://xkcd.com/1138/ It's things you'll see in the media/PR Journal articles that are nothing but look pretty and give a story a feel of authority when it shouldn't.

gavinray 5y ago

Thanks for sharing this, gave me a smile and a good chuckle. Some other people who are knowledgeable in the domain have posted that there might be some rigor issues. But I think a lot of us can empathize with the feeling of "No you idiot, that's not how you use that at all!" when it comes to some area we know more about than the average person. I'm pretty sure my car mechanic winces every time I bring my vehicle back into the shop. That's what I pay him for I guess.