The stories hidden in data

BusinessWeek recently ran a story entitled “Data Visualization: Stories for the Information Age,” in which the author, Maria Popova, calls data visualization:

…an interpretation, a different way to look at and think about data that often exposes complex patterns or correlations.

Data visualization is a way to make sense of the ever-increasing stream of information with which we’re bombarded and provides a creative antidote to the “analysis paralysis” that can result from the burden of processing such a large volume of information.

I like that definition, but there are other comments Maria makes that rub me the wrong way. Like Stephen Few, I disagree with the idea that data visualization has nothing to do with charts and graphs, and I’m mystified by the notion that it’s only marginally related to infographics.

While the business world is full of examples of tortured charts and incomprehensible infographics, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with old fashioned charts and graphs. You could argue that very few business people use them effectively, but the tools aren’t at fault.

Popova goes on to say that data visualization is “only marginally related to ‘infographics,’ information design that tends to be about objectivity and clarification.” I won’t argue about the definition of the term “infographics,” but successful data visualization has everything to do with objectivity and clarification. It may be more closely aligned with providing new perspectives and ways to glean new insights from data, but if a visualization fails to tell its story clearly, it’s a failure.*

Nitpicks aside, I’m glad to see that data visualization is getting attention in the mainstream business press, and I adored the last paragraph of the article.

Ultimately, data visualization is more than complex software or the prettying up of spreadsheets. It’s not innovation for the sake of innovation. It’s about the most ancient of social rituals: storytelling. It’s about telling the story locked in the data differently, more engagingly, in a way that draws us in, makes our eyes open a little wider and our jaw drop ever so slightly. And as we process it, it can sometimes change our perspective altogether.

Unlock the data. Paint a picture in my mind. Tell me a story.

1. * That’s assuming we agree that the point of data visualization is to uncover and expose new meaning. there are many visualizations that are created purely for aesthetic purposes, but I’d argue that those visualizations are not successful at exposing complex patterns or correlations. But they look nice. [↩]