garry’s posthaven

Hey Mint guys, you're doing great work. You've got great data. I love your product. Your blog is cool.

You've got to fix your infographics. It's just... really... not... OK. I spent years designing data visualization for a quant data analysis platform (Palantir Finance) so somewhere along the way, bad data viz became a huge if very geeky pet peeve.

Look at that example above. What is going on? Some things are big and some things are small. There's no legend. There's no common axes. This is chart junk... or maybe worse (better?) -- chart porn. It simulates the act of looking at statistics without actually giving the user any real insight.

Growth rate? Growth of what? Rate over what amount time? Heck, you don't even get the numbers. There's no time, date, footnote, asterisk. All the viewer ends up with is a question mark. It's happening over and over again, like this one I blogged about a few months ago.

This is not useful. You know what's a better visualization than a bunch of random images that are slightly bigger or smaller than each other with no labels? Ordered lists. That's the amount of information you're communicating if you don't give numbers and context.

Brilliant design thinker / statistician Edward Tufte would *hate* these infographics. In fact he would probably set it on fire. Tufte says: Minimize non-data ink. That is to say, don't waste your time on parts of a chart that don't convey additional message.

Data Ink Ratio = (data-ink)/(total ink in the plot)

This is minimalism at work in infographics. Data stands on its own. It does not need fancy images and gussied up fancy texture backgrounds.

Here's a case study from Tufte's work that I find fascinating. Chart junk of the worst order (not even qualifying for porn -- it's not pretty):

Yet when you apply a high data-ink ratio and a whole lot of ingenuity (designers thrive on constraints), what you can get can be dramatically better:

Look at that! Cut the crap and let the data speak for itself -- and the mundane / unintelligible suddenly takes on meaning and life.

The problem with chart porn is that it gets in the way of the message you're communicating. I'm a big believer in minimalism, and these charts are anti-minimalist. They are filled with lines and fury signifying nothing. (rather like life, some would say)

Oh, Mint. Please use your data for good, not for more chart porn.