
Florence Nightingale: Saving lives with statistics - edward
http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/z92hsbk?intc_type=promo&intc_location=news&intc_campaign=florence&intc_linkname=iwonder_factual_guide
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danso
I love the emphasis in the OP, both in the content and in the headline, on her
mathematical background. The rose diagram of military deaths is so frequently
as image associated with her that she's sometimes more remembered as an
infographic designer (the rose diagram, to be honest, is much less
decipherable than a standard bar histogram) than the insightful statistician
that she was.

I'd argue the same for John Snow, who is legendary for his map, even though it
was, according to biographers, an afterthought for him when doing the actual
research (and the map itself also wasn't particularly effective to make his
case, nor was he the first to do it).

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leanthonyrn
Amazing presentation! As a nursing informaticist myself, Florence Nightingale
represents the core of what we strive to do.

["Nursing Informatics is the "science and practice (that) integrates nursing,
its information and knowledge, with management of information and
communication technologies to promote the health of people, families, and
communities worldwide." (IMIA Special Interest Group on Nursing Informatics
2009).]

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asher_
I've always thought that the rose diagram is an interesting example for
discussing the purpose of visualisations. The positive result of this work is
undeniable, but is it a good visualisation?

That depends on whether you believe the goal of a visualisation is to convince
people of something, or if you believe the goal is to accurately communicate
information. It excelled in the former, but failed in the latter.

Quantity of deaths in the diagram is represented as the distance from the edge
of the wedge to the centre of the circle. Because of this, larger quantities
have proportionally much larger areas displayed, which the brain interprets as
a measure of quantity. The other way this diagram is designed to convince
people at the expense of accuracy is the placement of preventable deaths
furthest from the centre, meaning those wedges are much larger in area for the
same quantity as the inner ones, further distorting the reality.

We've all seen bad representations of data by the media, politicians, and
businesses criticised, but this work often seems to get a pass because of its
undeniably positive outcome

