Steve’s Blog

Using Tableau to Visualize Survey Data — Part 2 ½

By |2012-04-16T10:28:11+00:00April 16th, 2012|Visualizing Survey Data|

Note: While the information in this blog is useful,  I've discovered some better ways to perform intra-question analysis; I just haven't blogged about them yet.  Feel free to nag me. January 3, 2018 update.  I've written a two-part post that explores better ways to conduct intra-question analysis.  Please see this post.  Overview So, I thought I [...]

Blue is Good, Orange is Bad

By |2012-03-23T11:10:48+00:00March 23rd, 2012|General Discussions|

So, as anyone who has either taken a Tableau class with me or has read my blog posts knows, I go ballistic when I see anyone use a red/green divergent color palette. So, it's great to see people using Tableau's color-blind palette, but we need to get something straight: Dark Blue == Good, Lots Dark [...]

Just what is it with Texas?

By |2012-02-06T17:36:07+00:00February 6th, 2012|Health and Social Issues|

Overview I really am not “out to get” Texas.  Yes, I have previously published a visual study tracking STDs, HIV, and AIDS in Texas, which in turn led to some blog posts on the subject, but one of the main reasons for focusing on Texas was that the data I needed were readily available and [...]

Has User Assistance Taken a Step Backwards?

By |2011-12-18T20:43:24+00:00December 18th, 2011|General Discussions|

Overview Full Disclosure – my former company, WexTech Systems, developed and marketed the first commercial online help authoring tool, Doc-To-Help.  I use online assistance a lot and expect it to be, well, helpful. Is it me, or has the quality of online help / user assistance declined in the past few years?  For example, when [...]

Likert Scales — The Final Word?

By |2011-10-12T12:57:46+00:00October 12th, 2011|Visualizing Survey Data|

Overview I received a number of comments from my last post (see https://www.datarevelations.com/likert-scale-nirvana.html) including what I think is a better approach for staggered Likert scale visualizations from Joe Mako. Joe’s approach with various “kitchen sink” added functionality is shown in the interactive dashboard below.  Notice that you can control whether neutral values are displayed, sorting, [...]

Likert Scale Nirvana

By |2011-10-06T12:37:14+00:00October 6th, 2011|Visualizing Survey Data|

Overview I’ve written a lot about this subject (see https://www.datarevelations.com/the-likert-question-question.html and https://www.datarevelations.com/a-little-more-on-likert-scale-questions.html) but some recent discussions with friends / colleagues Joe Mako and Naomi Robbins (along with some long plane rides to and from the Midwest) encouraged me to  see how difficult it would be to create a “staggered” Likert scale chart like the one [...]

Is Trouble Brewing in Texas?

By |2011-09-21T15:40:21+00:00September 21st, 2011|Health and Social Issues|

What’s Going to Happen when the Clinics Close? I’ve had a lot of conversations this past week regarding my data visualization tracking STDs, HIV, and AIDS in Texas from 2006 to 2010 (see http://bit.ly/r57qeR.) One of the bigger questions that may have been overlooked in my accompanying blog post is what is going to happen [...]