{"id":90,"date":"2011-07-29T17:15:58","date_gmt":"2011-07-29T21:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/29\/advices-by-edward-tufte-importance-of-context-for-charts\/"},"modified":"2015-05-11T20:04:56","modified_gmt":"2015-05-11T20:04:56","slug":"advices-by-edward-tufte-importance-of-context-for-charts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/29\/advices-by-edward-tufte-importance-of-context-for-charts\/","title":{"rendered":"Advices by Edward Tufte: Importance of Context for Charts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We continue posting tips from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edwardtufte.com\/tufte\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Edward Tufte<\/a>&#8216;s works. In <b>The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information<\/b>, he puts a lot of attention to the problem of lying in charts.<\/p>\n<p>It is assumed that charts are aimed to show the truth about data in the most demonstrative way, but this demonstrativeness is a two-edged weapon. Owing to some tricks &#8211; or mistakes &#8211; data may seem not what they are. One of them is the <b>lack of context<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>According to Tufte, <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>To be truthful and revealing, data graphics must bear on the question at the heart of quantitative thinking: &#8220;Compared to what?&#8221; The emaciated, data-thin design should always provoke suspicion, for graphics often lie by omission, leaving out data sufficient for comparisons.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The author gives an example of such a graphic &#8211; it shows the number of traffic deaths before and after stricter enforcement by the police against cars exceeding the speed limit:<\/p>\n<p><center><img src='http:\/\/6.anychart.com\/blog\/images\/importance_of_context\/1.png'><\/center><\/p>\n<p>A few more data points make the situation much clearer:<\/p>\n<p><center><img src='http:\/\/6.anychart.com\/blog\/images\/importance_of_context\/2.png'><\/center><\/p>\n<p>A different context would cause a very different interpretation:<\/p>\n<p><center><img src='http:\/\/6.anychart.com\/blog\/images\/importance_of_context\/3.png'><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Comparison to adjacent states shows that the crackdown on speeding decreased the number of traffic fatalities not only in Connecticut:<\/p>\n<p><center><img src='http:\/\/6.anychart.com\/blog\/images\/importance_of_context\/4.png'><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Of course, if one needs to distort the meaning of data, concealing the context may be a relatively useful tip, but in other situations, it is definitely a mistake. The principle formulated by Edward Tufte is:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Graphics must not quote data out of context.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We continue posting tips from Edward Tufte&#8216;s works. In The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information, he puts a lot of attention to the problem of lying in charts. It is assumed that charts are aimed to show the truth about data in the most demonstrative way, but this demonstrativeness is a two-edged weapon. Owing to [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[42,41],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anychart-charting-component","category-tips-and-tricks","tag-books","tag-tufte","wpautop"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Advices by Edward Tufte: Importance of Context for Charts | AnyChart News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/29\/advices-by-edward-tufte-importance-of-context-for-charts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advices by Edward Tufte: Importance of Context for Charts | AnyChart News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We continue posting tips from Edward Tufte&#8216;s works. In The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information, he puts a lot of attention to the problem of lying in charts. It is assumed that charts are aimed to show the truth about data in the most demonstrative way, but this demonstrativeness is a two-edged weapon. Owing to [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/29\/advices-by-edward-tufte-importance-of-context-for-charts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AnyChart News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AnyCharts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-29T21:15:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-05-11T20:04:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/6.anychart.com\/blog\/images\/importance_of_context\/1.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Margaret Skomorokh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AnyChart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AnyChart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Margaret Skomorokh\" \/>\n\t<meta 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