Tuftes Principles of Graphical Integrity: Business Examples with Directions in Excel

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Tuftes Principles of Graphical Integrity
Business Examples with Directions in Excel

• Frost and Pike

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Tufte Principle 1

• The representation of numbers, as physically
  measured on the surface of the graphic itself,
  should be directly proportional to the numerical
  quantities represented.

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3D Objects Can Exaggerate Changes
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Calculate Lie Factor
Volume H x L x W
Volume 1.51 x .5 x 0.38 .29 cubic units
Volume 1.15 x .36 x 0.27 .11 cubic units
Change in Volume Change in Data
Lie Factor
.29 - .11 .11 . 1.51
1.15 1.15
Lie Factor
5.1
Lie Factor
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Right Size the Pump
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A Line Provides More Truthful Information
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Real Values Are More Truthful Still
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Tufte Principle 2

• Clear, detailed, and thorough labeling should be
  used to defeat graphical distortion and
  ambiguity.
• Write out explanations of the data on the graphic
  itself.
• Label important events in the data.

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Decline without Explanation
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Annotate to Provide Explanation
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Tufte Principle 3

• Show data variation, not design variation.

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Cheesy Chartjunk Rots Graph
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A Line Provides a Simple and Elegant Design
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Cheese Outside of Graph
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Or Add the Cow
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Tufte Principle 4

• In times-series displays of money, deflated and
  standardized units of monetary measurement are
  nearly always better than nominal units.

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Nominal Dollars Exaggerate Change
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Real Dollars Tell the True Story
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Unstandardized Data
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Standardized Data
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Tufte Principle 5

• The number of information-carrying (variable)
  dimensions depicted should not exceed the number
  of dimensions in the data.

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One Variable and Three Dimensions
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One Variable and One Dimension
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Tufte Principle 6

• Graphics must not quote data out of context.

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Unable to Draw Conclusion
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Conclusion Drawn with Non-Events
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No Context, Less Informative
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Context Adds Information