Visualization

Learning About Data Visualization

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ December 5, 2010 ⋅ 2 comments

Even though there is an art to visualization design, it stands to reason that this is a skill that can be taught / learned. I remember going to campus visits with my daughter, and hearing about a textbook considered to be a timeless classic – teaching students how to draw. What a concept – I [...]

Art and Science of Data Visualization (Part 2)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ November 14, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

Just a little more theory and background on Data Visualization, to eat up the rest of your weekend. Unlike the McCandless video, this video will take some time investment – but well worth it, if you want to charge your batteries on this topic. (via Flowing Data) From earlier this year, Martin Wattenberg gives a [...]

Art and Science of Data Visualization

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ November 7, 2010 ⋅ One comment

“Data Visualization” has been an extremely active and popular topic for a few years – we can use Google’s Timeline search feature to see the growth in interest since 1980: That local high in July of this year was due in no small part to David McCandless’ Information is Beautiful talk at TED this past [...]

Data Visualization: How (2 of 2)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ January 19, 2010 ⋅ 2 comments

The short answer, as you know, is that it’s impossible to tell you how to be insightful and imaginative in a single blog post. All I can do is point you in the general direction, and (hopefully) ignite a little spark. What’s the Goal? and, Where to Begin? I previously talked about the growing calls [...]

Data Visualization: Why (1 of 2)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ January 13, 2010 ⋅ One comment

Between business requests and breathless vendors, I am getting caught up in the growing tide of interest in “data visualizations” – managers requesting highly interactive, highly graphical, highly intuitive analytics interfaces (think Minority Report). But what are we trying to accomplish here? We keep on hearing about “executive dashboards”, a heads-up display of in-my-face KPIs, [...]

Inspiration, Images, Insight, Imitation, Innovation

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ December 19, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Just a quick post on this pre-holiday weekend, with my design-leaning kids out of school / back from college for the holidays, and a general sense of creativity mixed in with the holiday spirit. Inspiration … … can come from many places. Nothing new there, but I like to get inspiration for X from looking [...]

Linkfest: Data Visualization

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ September 7, 2008 ⋅ One comment

I’m a long-time fan of effective visualizations, and I’ve often written about the effective use of visual information when making presentations or communicating complex information. I’ve subscribed to my share of blogs and feeds on the topic, and have amassed quite a backlog of interesting links … presented here for your hyperlinking enjoyment … Best [...]

Data Visualization: ‘Life’ of Open Source Projects

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ June 16, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Part of the “art” of communicating IT and business abstractions – technical challenges, project roadmaps, budget performance, customer relationships, IT effectiveness – is landing on the right visualization. A picture tells a thousand words, and if you can draw the picture well, your target audience will grasp these concepts quickly, and (potentially) get insights that [...]

Customer DNA – A Different Take on Understanding Markets and Networks

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ June 11, 2005 ⋅ Post a comment

My blogroll includes tech-focused blogs as well as general business sites (along with some humor). It’s an interesting cross section, that allows me to see a wide variety of reactions to news such as MacTel, Office XML, Offshoring, and other things. The variety reminded me of an old thought exercise I led at a previous [...]

Visualization

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