Data Visualization May Be The Thing – But Caution Required
We’ve all been impressed by the clever and revealing things that can be done with big data sets in terms of graphic representation of deep and complex relationships; but IT World has found that it’s possible to be too impressed by these data visualizations. Human nature stubbornly favors style over substance and the very cleverness of these pictures seems to give them credibility. The validity of the data is taken on faith because they look so slick. One consequence: expect to see a lot more of these kinds of graphics showing up in consumer marketing.
If you use data visualizations in your presentations at work, you need to be cautious about any selections, definitions and exclusions, that may not be obvious in the output. It used to be enough to add a bunch of footnotes to a pie chart with the necessary caveats; but the easier it is to grasp data visually, the less likely your consumer is to read the fine print. And the more that data is combined in complex and subtle ways, the more danger there is in the hidden assumptions.
