Journalist and author David McCandless is a man with a passion: data visualization. Numbers have become so huge – in economics, business, statistics, science – that mere mortals just can’t get their heads round them. He illustrated that point today at The Premier Business Leadership Conference in his talk, "The Beauty of David Visualization (start video at 6:30)."
President Obama recently proposed a $100 million cut in the US Federal budget. That sounds like a big number. It is a big number; it is one we all have trouble in grasping. Yet the total Federal budget is $3500 billion. In his keynote address, The Beauty of Data Visualization, David used a simple picture to show the actual relationship: $100 million is not even a spit in the bucket; barely a speck of dust on a barnyard door.
But data visualization can do far more than putting these big numbers into true perspective. David used colorful graphics to reveal in an instant what would need thousands of words and hundreds of hours of wading through data. For example: public concern about violence in video games always peaks in November and April. Why? November is an easy one – it’s when the new games are released for Christmas. But April? Well, the answer is that the Columbine tragedy occurred in April, so there is a lot of media and public discussion when the anniversary comes round. The correlation is very clear.
And if your relationship is going through a rocky patch, David’s insights into when couples are most likely to break up will be of interest. Watch out for Mondays. And be sure to take a summer holiday together, that’s the best time to mend your fences. The evidence was clearly presented with a single graphic, but based on David’s trawls through vast volumes of Facebook data.
Do you believe in horoscopes? Based on an analysis of thousands of them David represented the common themes in a single graphic and reduced them to half a dozen messages. “Family and friends matter, keep making love” was the most popular with the audience.
“Data is the new soil,” said David. And no doubt, data visualization such as the graphics he presented are the flowers blooming on that soil.
Learn more from David in this video interview about the importance of data visualization.
