Can Data Visualization Save Lives?

If you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably already heard plenty about the ever expanding presence of data visualization and infographics. Not just on dashboards and in board rooms, but out in the real world, on billboards, on fast food cups, virtually everywhere.

Beyond helping to bring some clarity around KPIs and Corporate Metrics, data, and specifically data visualization, is being leveraged in every facet of life. Things like “data for good” where visualization is being used to help resolve world hunger.

But what about in our everyday lives…at home? Can visualizing data make a difference?

I’m sure we could come up with an extensive list of examples, but one I want to talk about today is weather forecasting, especially as it relates to storm tracking.

It seems like just yesterday that when it came to reporting tornadoes, the news was always reactionary. You only knew a tornado was in your area if one had been reported from the ground. The obvious downside to this was there was no warning system. People were often blindsided. No longer is this the case.

Take a look at the following radar map:

This one shows a fairly strong storm system with a pattern in the bottom left (“The Hook”) that is often an indicator that a funnel cloud has formed,  or could be forming. Although these pictures are older, the same pattern was shown recently as storms passed through North Carolina. When this pattern is spotted, our local weatherman, Greg Fischel, will drill down into the following radar visualization that shows wind direction.

Here, the Red shows wind moving away from the radar satellite and the green shows wind moving towards the satellite. As the two wrap around each other, it’s a tell-tale sign that a funnel cloud has formed. Greg will typically zoom in on the edges to get the wind speeds and then provide some annotation (arrows) as he has done here to help the casual viewer understand exactly what is going on.

Having this data allows the local news to broadcast warnings to individual subdivisions, providing predictions of when a tornado is likely to hit your precise location with accuracy to the minute.

So if anyone asks you if data visualization has ever saved lives, the answer should be YES.

This is just one example of the power of data visualization. I’d love to hear other examples that you have come across.

Cheers,

Kevin Taylor

"Age Stickers" - Data Visualization Should be Unbiased

What I’m about to write about should be considered by confession of geekness. I’m perfectly fine with that. The sad part is my wife now knows just how big of a geek I am too.

In the “real world” it’s often easy to find examples of poor data visualization design. It’s a bit more rare to find a really good example.

Sitting on the couch one weekend, watching TV with my wife, I saw a Prudential Retirement commercial. (yes a commercial, they still exist in the DVR / NetFlix era). Essentially, people are asked to place a sticker on a chart to mark the age of the oldest person they’ve ever known. By the end of the commercial you are made to believe that people are living longer so you should invest more in your retirement.

Here’s a link to the 1-min commercial:  http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7IhP/prudential-age-stickers

I literally got up and shouted “I LOVE IT” and my wife looked at me like I had 6 heads. Oddly, I was going to write about how good of an example it was until I sat down to write. When I did, I started to break down the visual and the story it was telling and realized how biased it actually is.

What if the study had asked the same people if they knew someone that has passed away between the ages of 50 and 65 and plotted those stickers? Would you still want to increase your retirement investment if it were likely you wouldn’t reach retirement age?

The fact is, you can make a chart tell just about any story you want by using partial data. In order to represent the data accurately, you should include all the data.

In this case, a more responsible way to visualize this data might have been to show average (or median) age of death(based on all death data) over time. If the line is trending up, you have your unbiased visual to market. If it’s trending down, don’t twist the data to tell otherwise. Although this is marketing and honesty doesn't necessarily sell investment packages.

Cheers,

Kevin Taylor