[HN Gopher] Visualizing Data Is an Art - We Should Treat It Like...
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Visualizing Data Is an Art - We Should Treat It Like One
Author : skadamat
Score : 72 points
Date : 2025-02-12 14:17 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (perthirtysix.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (perthirtysix.com)
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| Ignoring the actual argument to focus on the object level example
| of pie-charts:
|
| Pie Charts are good for showing relative proportions of a whole
| for a relatively small number of items. Donut charts are better
| because humans tend to misread area slightly in pie charts.
| shriracha wrote:
| Author of the article here! Yes you're completely right. I
| think they also have other underrated properties, like they fit
| neatly in a square which can be helpful for laying out a
| dashboard. And for some reason, in my experience, people just
| like them.
|
| But when done poorly, they can be a mess. Like any other chart.
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| People also like misusing them: My favorite pie chart to hate
| on is a pair/sequence of pie charts showing proportions over
| time: Pie chart for 2020, 2021, 2022,2023, etc... 100% scaled
| stacked barchart is an option in every tool I've ever seen
| that can make a pie chart...
| ge96 wrote:
| Damn the coffe shop tracking ha
| caycep wrote:
| this makes me nostalgic for the days when d3.js and observable
| made it regularly to HN front page...
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| Be the change you wish to see in the world!
| bbor wrote:
| I don't love the "me against the world" framing, but maybe I've
| just been blessed with good teachers -- this is a great summation
| of what the HCI faculty at GaTech espouse! If it's not a
| consensus yet, it should be.
|
| If the author pops by, I've just gotta say: you're killin it with
| the cute illustrations, especially the dials one. Very inspiring
| stuff!
|
| Thanks for sharing, OP.
|
| EDIT: if I had to pick out any one idea for a casual reader to
| learn about, I'd definitely highlight "Cognitive Load". It's used
| as part of a broader discussion here, but when looked at in a
| certain light it can capture a whole lot of diverse factors in
| one consistent framework!
| shriracha wrote:
| Thank you! Yeah, I hear you on the framing. I don't have a
| formal education on data viz myself (I guess not many people
| do?), but I've gotten into the world over the last few years. A
| lot of the literature I've seen has come across as dogmatic to
| me, which is what sparked this article. That's great to hear
| that your experience is more aligned with this way of thinking.
|
| And thanks for the nice words about the animations! Glad to
| hear that work doesn't go unappreciated haha
| minimaxir wrote:
| During the rise of the generative AI backlash, I once saw a take
| along the lines of "data visualization doesn't count as art
| because you write it with code: art only counts if you put sweat
| and tears and labor into it."
|
| I was too baffled to respond.
| pabloarteel wrote:
| No, it's not an Art.
|
| I get that people use the word art as "difficult", "obscure" or
| "intangible" but...
|
| Art is about self-expression, evoking emotions, and open
| interpretation. Design is about problem-solving, functionality,
| and clear communication.
|
| Clearly DataViz is Design.
| shriracha wrote:
| I don't see art and design as mutually exclusive. I also don't
| think that data viz is exclusively about functionality.
|
| Take a project like this: https://www.dear-
| data.com/theproject... this is clearly data visualization and,
| to me, quite evocative. These visualizations aren't designed
| for clarity and they don't need to be, that wasn't the goal.
| exe34 wrote:
| data Viz for it's own sake might be design - in real
| applications, you always have a story you're trying to tell -
| and it doesn't go away just because you're not consciously
| aware of it.
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| Art as in craft/field! "State of the Art" is a phrase that
| refers to what is possible within a domain. There is also the
| implication that it takes judgement, maybe even an artistic
| sensibility. This is in opposition to a strain of thought
| within data viz from the Business Intelligence/Analytics side
| of the field that has succumbed to the MBA/Process gospel that
| preaches Repeatable Process and the siren song of good data
| visualization without using your brain!
|
| Is Design an Art?
| haswell wrote:
| > _Art is about self-expression, evoking emotions, and open
| interpretation_
|
| Art is about these things, but is also about many other things.
| And art can be clear in its intentions, leaving little to
| interpret.
|
| What is the purpose of data visualization? Often to evoke
| emotions and to help someone not familiar with the data
| understand how to interpret it.
|
| The people who accomplish this most effectively understand that
| the point isn't just to force data points into a visual form.
| If it were so simple, more people would be good at it (they
| aren't).
|
| > _Clearly DataViz is Design_
|
| I don't understand this sentence. I'm not trying to be
| difficult, but if DataViz is Design, what is Design?
| xnx wrote:
| I've grown out of being impressed by flashy and difficult to
| understand data visualizations. I'm much more impressed by novel
| insight, clearly presented, in familiar ways.
| debeloo wrote:
| I'd call what you describe as impressive, art.
|
| Flashy trashy is just crap. Some might call it art but then
| again everything is art these days.
| malux85 wrote:
| The greatest form of art is the discussion on whether
| something is art or not.
|
| When you see a broken toilet sitting in an art gallery
| selling for 5 million dollars and someone thinks "I could do
| that, this is stupid", they have completely missed the point.
| The art is not the broken toilet, the art is selling it for 5
| million dollars - which is something _the complaining person_
| definitly cannot do. That 's the art.
| jkaptur wrote:
| I think the article addresses your point: "The fact that some
| disciplines of an art form demand more precision doesn't mean
| the whole field shares those demands. It would be like saying
| best practices for photorealism should be applied to abstract
| expressionism, or how we approach technical writing should be
| the same as how we approach poetry."
|
| It wouldn't make sense to say "I've grown out of being
| impressed by complex prose" - you're welcome to enjoy Faulker
| or not, but he simply didn't have the same goals as the authors
| of the Stripe documentation, and judging both pieces of writing
| by the same standard is basically pointless (except, perhaps,
| as an art project of its own).
|
| I'd even apply this to coding itself. Day to day, I think
| everybody around me should be writing Blub, grug-brain code,
| but I'm happy there are people trying creative, weird languages
| and mind-bending ideas elsewhere and I'm curious what they find
| out.
| culi wrote:
| I think publications practicing actual journalism like The
| Upshot and ProPublica do an incredible job of this. The focus
| is always clear presentation and accessibility above all else
| but its undeniable that so much of their work is also just
| gorgeous
| gizajob wrote:
| I actually got the pie chart almost 100% correct...
| mouse_ wrote:
| 6% error on that pie chart. Pretty proud of myself ;)
| nh23423fefe wrote:
| 2% goml
| internet101010 wrote:
| 99% of the time it is design, 1% it is art. The goal is always to
| convey information in a digestible way without being misleading.
| An example of it being art is that video that illustrates death
| counts in WWII.
|
| The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics should be a
| required for reading for anyone working with numbers.
|
| tldr: only use color when necessary, avoid bold typefaces, keep
| scales consistent across charts unless there is a specific need
| to do otherwise.
| __mharrison__ wrote:
| I just wrote a book (released yesterday!), Effective
| Visualization, that takes almost the opposite approach. Follow
| well-known patterns and know your audience. That should guide you
| to telling a good story.
|
| It can look pretty, but making it art for the sake of art
| probably won't resonate with your audience.
|
| That's been my experience after I've trained and consulted with
| some of the biggest companies in the world.
|
| https://store.metasnake.com/effective-viz
| shriracha wrote:
| Congratulations on the book drop!
|
| So I'm not sure if you read my piece or just wanted to drop a
| promotion, but I think you're misrepresenting my view here. I'm
| not advocating for "art for the sake of art" and I certainly
| don't think you should not know your audience.
|
| My main point is that I don't think all of data viz is as
| simple as you're implying here, i.e. that a pretty chart
| probably won't "resonate" or that a chart from the Tufte school
| of thought automatically will.
| thom wrote:
| It's so easy to measure how fast and accurate users are at
| completing real tasks in your domain using various viz. I'd be
| disappointed if the conversation was purely between rigid
| principles and artistry.
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