If I see a visualization that is poorly designed or worse, misleading, I'm going to say something about it. I hope you will do the same. In March of 2013 Stephen Few published a scathing review of Tableau 8. Few's thesis was that Tableau had caved to marketing pressure and its new product would encourage users to [...]
I recently attended the Tableau Customer Conference.  It was a great conference and if you are into Tableau you should definitely go to next year's event (see http://tcc14.tableauconference.com/seattle/). In any case, during the myriad networking opportunities I was very pleased by the number of people who told me how much they had gotten out of a [...]
In this installment we’ll look at Utah State University’s publication of student engagement results. Utah State is one of many collegiate institutions that have participated in NSSE’s national survey of student engagement (see http://nsse.iub.edu/ and http://nsse.iub.edu/html/about.cfm). Special thanks to Allan Walker for making the underlying data available to me. Note: I've published four sets of [...]
I love Tableau and I articulate that love through consulting, training, evangelizing, and blogging. But there are some things about the product that just drive me nuts. Here's a flaw that's been in the software since at least version 2.0 that I know has tripped up EVERYONE that uses Tableau. And just what is this [...]
Overview Today I'm going to write about four viz types that have solved a lot of problems for me but that I don't see out in the wild very often. Â I really like each of these approaches as they are analytically sharp and pack an emotional wallop. Note: a collection of dashboards illustrating each of [...]
Note: This post is dated but contains useful information. I've discovered some better ways to handle this but haven't blogged about it yet. Feel free to nag me and I'll either write the post or conduct a screen-sharing session. Overview Note: If you have not already done so, please review Part 1, Part 2, and [...]
Overview I was stuck earlier this month trying to cajole Tableau into doing something I needed it to do so I contacted my friend Joe Mako. Â When it comes to Tableau, Joe is the "guru's guru." (Joe was the person that showed me how to create filled maps in Tableau before Tableau had native support [...]
Bob Dylan – folk hero to thousands if not millions  – caused a furor when he appeared at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival with ... an electric guitar! If you read about the incident you’ll discover that there was a mammoth sense of betrayal within the folk-centric fold. How could their hero embrace rock music? [...]
My problem with most infographics is that they sacrifice accuracy and clarity for whimsy and cuteness. While I understand the desire to "draw the reader" in, I believe it's critical that the information and the story not be misleading. So, imagine my delight when I thought I had found an infographic that was spot-on accurate and fun and engaging. [...]
I spend half my time as a musician and the other half as a data visualization "scientist". Â I love both professions but one downside shared by both professions is that I cannot listen to music nor glance at a chart without trying to figure out what is going on inside the music and inside the [...]
