Naomi B. Robbins worked at Bell Labs in the 1990s – the same era when William S. Cleveland, another employee of that famed R&D organization, authored the seminal work The Elements of Graphing Data. When Robbins read her colleague’s book, she found a new calling. “I found it fascinating,” Robbins remembers. “He wrote the book for audiences in science and technology. As I read it, I thought that many others needed this information: nonprofits, businesses, medical professionals, and many others.” With Cleveland’s encouragement, in 1997 Robbins founded NBR, a consultancy specializing in graphical data presentation.
“I train employees of corporations, government agencies, and organizations on the effective presentation of data,” Robbins says of her work. “I also review documents and presentations for clients, suggesting improvements or alternative presentations as appropriate.”
Robbins is author of Creating More Effective Graphs (Chart House), is chair-elect of the Statistical Graphics Section of the American Statistical Association, and frequently speaks on graphs to students (ranging from preschoolers to university students), professional societies, nonprofits, government agencies, and conventions – including next week’s Big Data TechCon, where she will co-lead an all-day tutorial intended to help attendees present data effectively in all media. Actuate asked Robbins three questions about her specialty: Graphs.
Actuate: You’ve dedicated your career to the “clear communication of numbers for understanding data and decision-making purposes.” Why are graphs and other data visualizations so important in that process?
Robbins: Good graphs take advantage of our perceptual systems and enable us to see patterns much more clearly than we can from tables or text. In my talk at Big Data TechCon I will show examples in which relationships jump out at us that would be difficult to see from other forms of communication.
Actuate: What are some common – but perhaps surprising or unknown – things that people can do to make data visualizations more clear, concise, and easy to understand?
Robbins: Some easy ways to improve a figure are to eliminate non-essential elements, lighten other elements such as grid lines so they appear in the background, and always work to make the data stand out.
Actuate: How has technology changed the way we create and consume data in graphical form? How do you think the tools and data visualizations will evolve and improve in the future?
Robbins: Technology has certainly changed the way we create and consume data in graphical form. The number of graphs has exploded and continues to explode. It is much quicker and easier to create figures. We can include many more variables and much larger datasets. We don’t need to spend as much time on drudgery. But there are also negatives to using technology. Vendors make it easy to decorate figures, to add unnecessary dimensions and other forms of chartjunk. Many consumers expect graphs to entertain or impress even if doing so distorts the data and misleads the reader.
I expect to see better methods for interactive and dynamic visualizations and also for handling big data. I expect that some companies will continue to consider perception and produce tools for effective graphs. I don’t think that all tools will improve. Most vendors will continue to provide tools that distort the data and mislead the readers.
Naomi B. Robbins and Richard M. Heiberger will present “Clear Data Graphics with Illustrations in R” on Monday, October 27 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Big Data TechCon. The next day Mark Gamble, Director of Technical Marketing at Actuate, will present “The Art of Possible: from Raw Data to Real Decisions in 10 Minutes” at a Lightning Talk Session on Tuesday, October 28, at 3:15 p.m.
Visit the Actuate at Booth #206 to view data visualization tools, dashboards and interactive reports.
Photo courtesy Naomi B. Robbins. Used with permission.