Communication Charts Around The World. A Google example: preattentive attributes. The topic of my short preso at the visual.ly meet up last week in Mountain View was preattentive attributes. I started by discussing exactly what preattentive attributes are (those aspects of a visual that our iconic memory picks up, like color, size, orientation, and placement on page) and how they can be used strategically in data visualization (for more on this, check out my last blog post). Next, I talked through a Google before-and-after example applying the lesson, which I'll now share with you here. First, a little background: In 2010, my colleague Neal Patel undertook research on managers at Google. He set out to understand two primary things: 1) the impact that managers have on work-life and 2) what makes a good manager.
To read more about this study and the findings, check out the New York Times article from earlier this year. One of the early iterations looked like the following (note that I've generalized the visuals significantly to be able to show them here). Findings. A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. Data-Driven Decision Making: Promises and Limits - The CIO Report. What is Data Driven Decision Making - Contemporary Analysis. I was recently reminded of the importance of data driven decision making. I spent 6 days kayaking and backpacking in the wilderness on the US and Canada border. After living as a hyper connected technologist, disappearing into the backcountry was amazing and it lead to an unexpected realization.
I realized that building and using technology is part of being human. Even when disconnected from modern society, we use technology stay warm; capture, gather and cook food; and store and purify water. Without technology, modern or primitive, humans can’t survive. We often take technology for granted and demonize it as unnatural. I carried roughly 50 pounds of gear, food and water into the backcountry. My location: I wanted to know where I was. These are things that I normally take for granted, but when stuck in the backcountry I realized how much I use “business intelligence” and “data driven decision making” in everyday decisions. What is Data Driven Decision Making - Contemporary Analysis.