There’s a lot of BS in datavis, some of it obvious and some of it subtle. Two professors at the University of Washington are tackling it in their new course, Calling Bullshit. I found the essay on their site regarding The Principle of Proportional Ink to be quite instructive not just as a BS detector, but also a guide to how to create better data visualizations. They manage to cover a host of datavis examples that each make a mockery of this principle in their own unique ways.
So much heights!
Column chart bullshit
Does The Da Vinci Code look twice as popular as The Diary of Anne Frank?
So much dimensions!
3D bullshit
Just quit with the 3D already.
The inside lane is cheating!
Donut chart bullshit
Anyone that’s ever watched a 400m race in track and field can appreciate why these are misleading.
The whole site is worth a read. I would have taken this class in college.
[ via boingboing ]