

How to Fix the Uncommunicative Table - timf
http://flowingdata.com/2009/04/21/visual-representation-of-tabular-information-how-to-fix-the-uncommunicative-table/

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michaels0620
I think the tables he chose were examples of bad table design rather than
anything inherently wrong with using tables per se. It would have been more
insightful had a better table example been used followed by a the new
representation _with the exact same data_. This would have made it easier to
assess the relative strengths of each approach.

I don't know the data very well, but I think the table could be improved by
doing the following:

Remove the columns with only one value and make part of the header or footer.

For the columns where nearly all of the values are identical, a light
highlight on the different values followed by a slight graying of the common
value would have worked.

A small space could have been added to the bottom of every fifth row to make
it easier to track horizontally.

The far right columns could have been aligned so that the numbers on either
side of slash lined up with the ones above or below.

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briancooley
I think there is some promise in the circos technique, but the author would be
well served to eliminate some of his rhetoric.

In particular, he should recall Tufte's advice that every visualization should
serve to answer a question. Tables are very good for looking up information,
in much the same way that a telephone book is good at providing the published
phone number of a specific person or business. Despite reading through two
examples, I am still unsure what relationships the visualization is
particularly adept at highlighting.

I don't know what "agnostic to the data domain" means, but I assume that it
suggests that the visualization has application regardless of the questions
being asked of the data. That attitude implies that the author fails to
understand what makes visualization interesting and useful in the first place.

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reconbot
This reminds of of some of the graphs they have in wired. While I'd love to
have a table to backup every visualization, I think if you're trying to
communicate the data you need to have both. I wish I knew who designs the
graphs for wired, I'd follow his work any day.

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kurtosis
I think I honestly prefered the tables, despite their flaws - although he
makes some good points. Maybe it just takes some getting used to.

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mblakele
The circles look very noisy at first, but it's an interesting approach. I
found the full article more interesting:
<http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/circos/?Visualizing_Tabular_Data>

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staticshock
This is pretty cool. The only problem is that the graphs are slightly
unconventional, so people may be put off by them at first.

They may seem less intuitive than other graphs, but it's probably more a
matter of familiarity. We understand other graphs so well in part because
we've been exposed to them so thoroughly.

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madair
It takes a little bit of study and I was put off at first, but then it became
very interesting. He's communicating quite a lot with each path, it just takes
a moment to get used to. It looks to me like it will become second nature.

Nice work.

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numbchuckskills
absurd.

How are these practical in any way? I guess I haven't read the manual....

I'll stick to bar/pie for visual representation.

