Tufte: The Future of Data Analysis

Data Visualization
Prepare for Class 04
Author

Eli Evans

Published

September 19, 2022

Notes on The Future of Data Analysis

  • Data visualization purpose is to assist the viewer’s cognitive task of looking at evidence.

  • Analytical design’s task is to explain, discover mechanisms, and find causes and effects.

  • Design principle: show lots of similarities and differences

  • Important to to get it right, not do what you want, because you can force data to fit any finding you’d like.

  • Get findings from the data, not analysis. Full pre-specification of the analysis helps findings not be influenced by looking ahead and finding that one transformation helps the model fit. Independent and honest confirmation of results also helps this problem.

  • Metrics become targets.

  • Important to know exactly how the original data was collected.