"Charts and graphs are a method of organizing information for a unique purpose. The purpose may be to inform, to persuade, to obtain a clear understanding of certain facts, or to focus information and attention on a particular problem. The information contained in charts and graphs must, obviously, be relevant to the purpose. For decision-making purposes. information must be focused clearly on the issue or issues requiring attention. The need is not simply for 'information', but for structured information, clearly presented and narrowed to fit a distinctive decision-making context. An advantage of having a 'formula' or 'model' appropriate to a given situation is that the formula indicates what kind of information is needed to obtain a solution or answer to a specific problem." (Cecil H Meyers, "Handbook of Basic Graphs: A modern approach", 1970)
"Graphs can present internal accounting data effectively. Because one of the main functions of the accountant is to communicate accounting information to users. accountants should use graphs, at least to the extent that they clarify the presentation of accounting data. present the data fairly, and enhance management's ability to make a more informed decision. It has been argued that the human brain can absorb and understand images more easily than words and numbers, and, therefore, graphs may be better communicative devices than written reports or tabular statements." (Anker V Andersen, "Graphing Financial Information: How accountants can use graphs to communicate", 1983)
"Dashboards and visualization are cognitive tools that improve your 'span of control' over a lot of business data. These tools help people visually identify trends, patterns and anomalies, reason about what they see and help guide them toward effective decisions. As such, these tools need to leverage people's visual capabilities. With the prevalence of scorecards, dashboards and other visualization tools now widely available for business users to review their data, the issue of visual information design is more important than ever." (Richard Brath & Michael Peters, "Dashboard Design: Why Design is Important," DM Direct, 2004)
"By showing recent change in relation to many past changes, sparklines provide a context for nuanced analysis - and, one hopes, better decisions. [...] Sparklines efficiently display and narrate binary data (presence/absence, occurrence/non-occurrence, win/loss). [...] Sparklines can simultaneously accommodate several variables. [...] Sparklines can narrate on-going results detail for any process producing sequential binary outcomes." (Edward R Tufte, "Beautiful Evidence", 2006)
"A good chart can tell a story about the data, helping you understand relationships among data so you can make better decisions. The wrong chart can make a royal mess out of even the best data set." (John H Johnson & Mike Gluck, "Everydata: The misinformation hidden in the little data you consume every day", 2016)
"A data story starts out like any other story, with a beginning and a middle. However, the end should never be a fixed event, but rather a set of options or questions to trigger an action from the audience. Never forget that the goal of data storytelling is to encourage and energize critical thinking for business decisions." (James Richardson, 2017)
"Most of us have difficulty figuring probabilities and statistics in our heads and detecting subtle patterns in complex tables of numbers. We prefer vivid pictures, images, and stories. When making decisions, we tend to overweight such images and stories, compared to statistical information. We also tend to misunderstand or misinterpret graphics."
"The second rule of communication is to know what you want to achieve. Hopefully the aim is to encourage open debate, and informed decision-making. But there seems no harm in repeating yet again that numbers do not speak for themselves; the context, language and graphic design all contribute to the way the communication is received. We have to acknowledge we are telling a story, and it is inevitable that people will make comparisons and judgements, no matter how much we only want to inform and not persuade. All we can do is try to pre-empt inappropriate gut reactions by design or warning." (David Spiegelhalter, "The Art of Statistics: Learning from Data", 2019)
"Well-designed data graphics provide readers with deeper and more nuanced perspectives, while promoting the use of quantitative information in understanding the world and making decisions." (Carl T Bergstrom & Jevin D West, "Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World", 2020)
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