4 ms·

Even a small amount of data literacy makes you aware that visualizations can deceive. Pie charts make humans overestimate large percentages, nonzero axis is bor

Even a small amount of data literacy makes you aware that visualizations can deceive. Pie charts make humans overestimate large percentages, nonzero axis is borderline fraud, choice of colors can totally warp color scales. I think that in this context it is expected for data literacy to make people suspicious of complex visualizations.

garciasn 2y ago
Data literacy should come down to the data itself, not only the visualization of those data. Sure pie charts are the bane of Tufte’s existence but even the best data visualizations of a particular segment of data can be misleading due to misrepresentation of the data underneath from collection to its analysis. People should be far more skeptical of what they are fed. Data narratives are often misleading with manipulation of the data, its aggregation, visualization, and especially the interpretation within context. Data literacy needs to address all of these, not simply the how it’s visualized; that’s simply the final step in the entire data and information lifecycle. I’m not saying “do your own research;” instead, folks should think critically about what they’re seeing and attempt to understand what’s presented and put it inside the appropriate context before taking anything at face value that they’re shown, by any organization. e: just formatting
Analemma_ 2y ago
> nonzero axis is borderline fraud This is an outrageously reductive meme that has long outstripped its actual usefulness and needs to die. The axis and scale should represent the useful range of values. For example, if your body temperature in Fahrenheit moves more than 5 degrees in either direction, you're having a medical emergency, but on a graph that starts from zero, this would barely be visible. Plotting body temperature from zero would conceal much more than it reveals, which is the opposite of what dataviz is supposed to do.
- matkoniecz 2y ago
  this is a very rare case where nonzero axis is justifiable nevertheless >99% of cases where I am encountering nonzero axis it is misleading > The axis and scale should represent the useful range of values this should not be confused for "range of values present in data" often actually useful visualization would show that value barely changed - but it makes for more truthful and boring news, so is avoided
  - Gormo 2y ago
    Any visualization that represents variation around a baseline value should use the baseline value as its axis, whether the baseline is zero or not.
- teddyh 2y ago
  The only reasonable zero-value for temperature is 0K, which unfortunately leads to unreadable graphs. (All other temperature scales are completely arbitrary.) So for the specific case of temperatures, it is in fact completely reasonable to have a nonzero axis. But most graphs are not temperatures.
roenxi 2y ago
Pie charts are just as unreadable for medium and small percentages. They encode values as angles. Human perception is not suited to estimating angles relative to each other.

garciasn 2y ago

Data literacy should come down to the data itself, not only the visualization of those data. Sure pie charts are the bane of Tufte’s existence but even the best data visualizations of a particular segment of data can be misleading due to misrepresentation of the data underneath from collection to its analysis. People should be far more skeptical of what they are fed. Data narratives are often misleading with manipulation of the data, its aggregation, visualization, and especially the interpretation within context. Data literacy needs to address all of these, not simply the how it’s visualized; that’s simply the final step in the entire data and information lifecycle. I’m not saying “do your own research;” instead, folks should think critically about what they’re seeing and attempt to understand what’s presented and put it inside the appropriate context before taking anything at face value that they’re shown, by any organization. e: just formatting

Analemma_ 2y ago

> nonzero axis is borderline fraud This is an outrageously reductive meme that has long outstripped its actual usefulness and needs to die. The axis and scale should represent the useful range of values. For example, if your body temperature in Fahrenheit moves more than 5 degrees in either direction, you're having a medical emergency, but on a graph that starts from zero, this would barely be visible. Plotting body temperature from zero would conceal much more than it reveals, which is the opposite of what dataviz is supposed to do.

matkoniecz 2y ago
this is a very rare case where nonzero axis is justifiable nevertheless >99% of cases where I am encountering nonzero axis it is misleading > The axis and scale should represent the useful range of values this should not be confused for "range of values present in data" often actually useful visualization would show that value barely changed - but it makes for more truthful and boring news, so is avoided
- Gormo 2y ago
  Any visualization that represents variation around a baseline value should use the baseline value as its axis, whether the baseline is zero or not.
teddyh 2y ago
The only reasonable zero-value for temperature is 0K, which unfortunately leads to unreadable graphs. (All other temperature scales are completely arbitrary.) So for the specific case of temperatures, it is in fact completely reasonable to have a nonzero axis. But most graphs are not temperatures.

roenxi 2y ago

Pie charts are just as unreadable for medium and small percentages. They encode values as angles. Human perception is not suited to estimating angles relative to each other.