I was recently asked my opinion of David McCandless’ chart “The Billion Pound-O-Gram,” pictured below. Click to enlarge. The person who asked the question was impressed with this chart the first time he saw it. For this reason, he thought that I might find it an effective exception to McCandless’ other work. I do not. […]

The following ad on Craig’s List illustrates a problem that I’ve been writing about for the last few years: confusion about data visualization and the arts. The title of the position is “Art Director – Data Visualization.” Here’s the ad in full. Job Description: We’re looking for an Art Director with 5+ years of relevant […]

The series of interactive data visualizations that have appeared on GE’s website over the last two years has provided a growing pool of silly examples. They attempt to give the superficial impression that GE cares about data while in fact providing almost useless content. They look fun, but communicate little. As such, they suggest that […]

I’ve often said that most large BI vendors support data analytics poorly—especially data visualization. While it’s true that the big guys find it difficult to change course quickly and that most are mired in an old paradigm (technology focused and engineering oriented, rather than design focused and people oriented), which doesn’t support what’s needed for […]

I’ve written in the past about the fine data visualization products of Panopticon—one of the few commercial software vendors that understands data visualization. Having not seen the latest releases of their products for a while, I recently contacted the folks at Panopticon to request a product briefing. In addition to learning about the latest features […]