Inspired Ideas

How many times have you been in a presentation where the presenter deems it necessary to walk you through every single graph, chart and data series in horrible detail?

Maybe if I close my eyes for just a little bit, nobody will notice and when I wake-up this presentation will be over. Probably not. Time to start drawing oompa loompas (see the note on SketchNotes).

Edward Tufte, described by the New York Times as the “Leonardo da Vinci of data” refers to this common business problem as “chartjunk“.

And we’ve all been guilty of it. Oh, let’s make the chart 3-d, no wait let’s add drop shadows and rounded corner boxes everyone loves those. High-fives all around.

The problem with data in PPT presentations is that it usually lacks context. We are visual people. We respond to images.

That’s why I am a fan of Chris Jordan’s exhibit called “Running the Numbers” - where he takes a look at unbelievable statistics of contemporary American culture.

Every five minutes the US consumes approximately 2 million bottles of water. Unreal. Now take a look at how that looks visually:

Up-close:

Every five minutes.
Scary considering the bottled water industry didn’t even exist 15 years ago.

Check out all of Chris Jordan’s work, he’s got even more visually stunning examples of statistics, that will make you take a step back, from cellphones we dispose of to the number of paper bags we use everyday.

Want more? Check out his speech at the Pop!Tech conference.

- Nish

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