7 lessons from the pioneers of data visualization
DESCRIPTION
Presentation delivered on 9/9/13 at the 2013 Tableau Customer Conference in Washington, D.C.,TRANSCRIPT
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7 Things We Can Learn from the
Pioneers of Data Visualization
Ben Jones
Tableau Public Product Marketing Manager
@DataRemixed
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“Seize the Day”
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A Timeline of Data Visualization Pioneers
?
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Christoph Scheiner
A Jesuit who looked to the heavens
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1. Christoph Scheiner (1573-1650)
Diagram on
sundials
Invented the
pantograph
Observed sunspots
with a telescope
Germany
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From Rosa Ursina (1630)
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“Introductory Treatise in Favor of a
Moving Sun and a Stable Earth against
Galileo Galilei”
- Title of Scheiner’s last work,
published posthumously in 1650
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Lesson #1
Explore with an
open mind
(or, don’t be on the wrong side of
history)
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Joseph Priestley
A master of many disciplines
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2. Joseph Priestley (1733-1804)
“Electrical machine
for amateur
experimentalists”
Invented Soda
Water
Discovered Oxygen
Leeds, England
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“I never read the life of any important
person without discovering that he knew
more and could do more than I could ever
hope to know or do in half a dozen
lifetimes.” - Joseph Priestley
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Chart of Biography (1765)
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A New Chart of History (1769)
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Lesson #2
Seek to educate
(or, help others see the big picture)
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William Playfair
The founder of graphical methods of
statistics, aka “rogue” and “scoundrel”
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3. William Playfair (1759-1823)
Inventor of
multiple statistical
charts
Storming of the Bastille
Dundee, Scotland
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From “Commercial and Political Atlas” (1786)
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From “Commercial and Political Atlas” (1786)
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From “Statistical Breviary” (1801)
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From “Statistical Breviary” (1801)
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From “Agricultural Distresses” (1821)
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“No study is less alluring or more dry and tedious than statistics, unless the mind and imagination are set to work, or that the person studying is particularly interested in the subject; which last can seldom be the case with young men in any rank of life.”
- William Playfair
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Lesson #3
Use your
imagination
(or, if at first you don’t succeed…)
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John Snow
The Father of Epidemiology
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4. John Snow (1813-1858)
The Broad St.
Pump with handle
removed
Edict forbidding
drinking of water
which hasn’t been
boiled
John Snow’s “Cholera
Map”
York, England
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From “Commercial and Political Atlas” (1854)
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“You and I may not live to see the day, and my name may be forgotten when it comes, but the time will arrive when great outbreaks of cholera will be things of the past; and it is the knowledge of the way in which the disease is propagated which will cause them to disappear.”
- Dr. John Snow
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Lesson #4
Go to the source
(or, drink beer, not water…)
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Florence Nightingale
The Lady with the Lamp
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5. Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
Candle lantern
used at Scutari
Hospital Nightingale’s
medicine chest
Florence, Italy (born)
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"Diagram of the causes of mortality in the army in the East"
(1858)
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“I attribute my success to this - I never gave or took any excuse.”
“How very little can be done under the spirit of fear. ”
- Florence Nightingale
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Lesson #5
No excuses, no
fear
(or, don’t let anyone get in your way)
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Charles Joseph Minard
A Pioneer in Information Graphics
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6. Charles Joseph Minard (1781-1870)
Superintendent of
the School of
Bridges and Roads
Napoleon’s March
Dijon, France
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Flow map of Napoleon’s 1812 Russian campaign (1869)
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Flow map of Hannibal’s Raid (1869)
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“The aim of my carte figurative is less to
express statistical results, better done by
numbers, than to convey promptly to
the eye the relation not given quickly by
numbers requiring mental calculation.”
- Charles Joseph Minard
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Lesson #6
Apply your unique
perspective
(or, better late than never)
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7. Willard Cope Brinton
The pioneer time almost forgot
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7. Willard Cope Brinton (1880-1957)
Graphic methods
for presenting fact
(1914) Graphic
Presentation
(1937)
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From “Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts” (1914)
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From “Graphic Presentation” (1937)
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From “Graphic Presentation” (1937)
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“As the cathedral is to its foundation so is an effective presentation of facts to the data”
“One of a business man’s chief assets is his ability to show things to others in their true proportions.”
- Willard Cope Brinton
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Lesson #7
Respect the data
(or, don’t worry if no one knows your
name…)
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7 Things we can Learn from the Pioneers
1. Explore with an open mind
2. Seek to educate
3. Use your imagination
4. Go to the source
5. No excuses, no fear
6. Apply your unique perspective
7. Respect the data