The Truthful Art (Ch3 & Ch4) : A science state of mind - MariaAguilarV/JMM-622-Infographics-and-Data-Visualization GitHub Wiki

In chapters 3 and 4, Cairo talks about models, data and science, key elements to achieve the truthful in our visualizations. First of all, a model is described by the author as “a set of signs and their relations that explains something about how nature works with a variable degree of accuracy” – the more accurate a model is, the more useful it is. Thus, maps, scatterplots, tables and all kinds of visualizations are models. The “problem” with models is that its audience interprets them in different ways, they make their own mental models and sometimes it may result in misinterpretation. It is not because of the visualizations themselves, it is also because we humans tend to fell in what the author calls a series of bugs, as the patternicity, storytelling and confirmation bags; all of these rely in our tendency to believe in something and find any way to sustain it. Therefore, Cairo gives a great piece of advice here, when interpreting data and visualization, always ask “compared to what/who/when/where”, “always look for the pieces that are missing in the model”.
How can we avoid these bugs? Science. One of the author’s preferred definitions of science is “A systematic enterprise that builds, organizes, and shares knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions.” We need science to make our visualizations. In order to inform something to the world we first need to gather data, make conjectures, formulate a hypothesis, prove it and finally document it. The key element of this process are variables, these will guide us through the study, since stating the hypothesis and running the study until choosing which visualizations should be used to document the analysis.

I have recently seen in Twitter this infographic. My first impression was “I knew it, digitization is the way to survive in the market”. However, after reading these chapters, I kept looking at the graph and started thinking:

• It says “8% of companies believe in digitization to remain in their business”. But, what kind of companies are they? Are they in some specific industry: technology, services, finances, etc?
• It says “Digital disruptions are happening faster than ever”, but what does it mean “faster”? Since when are they comparing it?