The Power of Visualizing Data

Nobody would listen to the speeches, including me. They were awful. They were full of facts and figures he had dug up about running the state. He would say, “Now friends, if you will bear patiently with me for a few minutes, I will give you the figures,” and he would clear his throat and fumble with a sheet of paper and backbones would sag lower in the seats and folks would start cleaning their fingernails with their pocket knives.

If Willie had ever thought of talking to folks up on the platform just the way he could talk to you face to face when he got heated about something, leaning at you as if he meant every damned word he said and his eyes bugging out and shining, he might have swayed his constituency. […] But he hadn’t pulled out of the sickness he had. He had galloping political anemia.

He couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He was like a man with a chill who simply reckons that the climate is changing all of a sudden, and wonders why everybody isn’t shivering too. […]

“How you think it’s going, Jack? […] They didn’t seem to be paying attention much tonight. Not while I was trying to explain about my tax program.”

“Maybe you try to tell ’em too much. It breaks down their brain cells.”

“Looks like they’d want to hear about taxes, though”, he said.

“You tell ’em too much. Just tell ’em you’re gonna soak the fat boys, forget the rest of the tax stuff.”

“What we need is a balanced tax program. Right now the ratio between income tax and total income for the state gives an index that—”

“Yeah,” I said, “I heard the speech. But they don’t give a damn about that. Hell, make ’em cry, make ’em laugh, make ’em think you’re their weak erring pal, or make ’em think you’re God–Almighty. Or make ’em mad. Even mad at you. Just stir ’em up, it doesn’t matter how or why, and they’ll love you and come back for more. Pinch ’em in the soft place. They aren’t alive, most of ’em, and haven’t been alive in twenty years. Hell, their wives have lost their teeth and their shape, and likker won’t set on their stomachs, and they don’t believe in God, so it’s up to you to give ’em something to stir ’em up and make ’em feel alive again. Just for half an hour. That’s what they come for. Tell ’em anything. But for Sweet Jesus’ sake don’t try to improve their minds.”

In modern terms, Willie Stark was giving a PowerPoint presentation with bullet points, pie charts, stats and intricate math. He couldn’t comprehend why people wouldn’t listen and understand him until Jack Burden, a political reporter, gave him this “come to Jesus” I borrowed from Robert Penn Warren’s fabulous novel All the King’s Men (also a great movie with Sean Penn and Jude Law).

I couldn’t think of a better illustration of how to go from a mind numbingly boring presentation to an engaging, captivating one; how to go from raw data to an emotional appeal.

No wonder Al Gore got an Oscar for a slide show. A slide show! It wasn’t about the numbers, and Duarte Design folks understood it very well. On the other hand, Mitt Romney’s staff still churn out stupid bullet points. Good luck with that!

Now, you don’t have to jump around the stage Ballmer-style and yell, “If you don’t cache, you don’t matter” or address the audience, “My fellow hicks” as Willie Stark would do. Yet there’s also little excuse for boring bullet-point slide decks.

The same goes for UI, diagrams and other forms of communication. Look at Telerik’s product support lifecycle diagram. It’s awesome! They could’ve drawn a table with dry side-by-side comparisons, but a visual explanation works so much better. Look at Apple’s Time Machine visual metaphor. Very clever! Look at Vista’s… uuumm… uuumm… <sigh>.

Recommended Reading

When it comes to visualizing data, there’s hardly a higher authority than Edward Tufte. He is the author of highly acclaimed books Envisioning Information, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, etc. There are other good books, but this is a good start.

I also highly recommend Garr Reynolds’ blog Presentation Zen—a true source of inspiration.