"In the course of executing that design, it occurred to me that tables are by no means a good form for conveying such information. [...] Making an appeal to the eye when proportion and magnitude are concerned is the best and readiest method of conveying a distinct idea." (William Playfair, "The Statistical Brewery", 1801)
"Comparison between circles of different size should be absolutely avoided. It is inexcusable when we have available simple methods of charting so good and so convenient from every point of view as the horizontal bar." (Willard C Brinton, "Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts", 1919)
"Graphic methods convey to the mind a more comprehensive grasp of essential features than do written reports, because one can naturally gather interesting details from a picture in far less time than from a written description. Further than this, the examination of a picture allows one to make deductions of his own, while in the case of a written description the reader must, to a great degree, accept the conclusions of the author." (Allan C Haskell, "How to Make and Use Graphic Charts", 1919)
"Judgment must be used in the showing of figures in any chart or numerical presentation, so that the figures may not give an appearance of greater accuracy than their method of collection would warrant. Too many otherwise excellent reports contain figures which give the impression of great accuracy when in reality the figures may be only the crudest approximations. Except in financial statements, it is a safe rule to use ciphers whenever possible at the right of all numbers of great size. The use of the ciphers greatly simplifies the grasping of the figures by the reader, and, at the same time, it helps to avoid the impression of an accuracy which is not warranted by the methods of collecting the data." (Willard C Brinton, "Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts", 1919)
"The principles of charting and curve plotting are not at all complex, and it is surprising that many business men dodge the simplest charts as though they involved higher mathematics or contained some sort of black magic. [...] The trouble at present is that there are no standards by which graphic presentations can be prepared in accordance with definite rules so that their interpretation by the reader may be both rapid and accurate. It is certain that there will evolve for methods of graphic presentation a few useful and definite rules which will correspond with the rules of grammar for the spoken and written language." (Willard C Brinton, "Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts", 1919)
"Though graphic presentations are used to a very large extent to-day there are at present no standard rules by which the person preparing a chart may know that he is following good practice. This is unfortunate because it permits everyone making a chart to follow his own sweet will. Many charts are being put out to-day from which it would seem that the person making them had tried deliberately to get up some method as different as possible from any which had ever been used previously." (Willard C Brinton, "Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts", 1919)
"Though variety in method of charting is sometimes desirable in large reports where numerous illustrations must follow each other closely, or in wall exhibits where there must be a great number of charts in rapid sequence, it is better in general to use a variety of effects simply to attract attention, and to present the data themselves according to standard well-known methods." (Willard C Brinton, "Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts", 1919)
"Unlimited numbers of reports, magazines, and newspapers are now giving us reams of quantitative facts. If the facts were put in graphic form, not only would there be a great saving in the time of the readers but there would be infinite gain to society, because more facts could be absorbed and with less danger of misinterpretation. Graphic methods usually require no more space than is needed if the facts are presented in the form of words. In many cases, the graphic method requires less space than is required for words and there is, besides, the great advantage that with graphic methods facts are presented so that the reader may make deductions of his own, while when words are used the reader must usually accept the ready-made conclusions handed to him." (Willard C Brinton, "Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts", 1919)
"Correct emphasis is basic to effective graphic presentation. Intensity of color is the simplest method of obtaining emphasis. For most reproduction purposes black ink on a white page is most generally used. Screens, dots and lines can, of course, be effectively used to give a gradation of tone from light grey to solid black. When original charts are the subjects of display presentation, use of colors is limited only by the subject and the emphasis desired." (Anna C Rogers, "Graphic Charts Handbook", 1961)
"Graphic charts have often been thought to be tools of those alone who are highly skilled in mathematics, but one needs to have a knowledge of only eighth-grade arithmetic to use intelligently even the logarithmic or ratio chart, which is considered so difficult by those unfamiliar with it. […] If graphic methods are to be most effective, those who are unfamiliar with charts must give some attention to their fundamental structure. Even simple charts may be misinterpreted unless they are thoroughly understood. For instance, one is not likely to read an arithmetic chart correctly unless he also appreciates the significance of a logarithmic chart." (John R Riggleman & Ira N Frisbee, "Business Statistics", 1938)
"Graphic methods are very commonly used in business correlation problems. On the whole, carefully handled and skillfully interpreted graphs have certain advantages over mathematical methods of determining correlation in the usual business problems. The elements of judgment and special knowledge of conditions can be more easily introduced in studying correlation graphically. Mathematical correlation is often much too rigid for the data at hand." (John R Riggleman & Ira N Frisbee, "Business Statistics", 1938)
"[….] double-scale charts are likely to be misleading unless the two zero values coincide" (either on or off the chart). To insure an accurate comparison of growth the scale intervals should be so chosen that both curves meet at some point. This treatment produces the effect of percentage relatives or simple index numbers with the point of juncture serving as the base point. The principal advantage of this form of presentation is that it is a short-cut method of comparing the relative change of two or more series without computation. It is especially useful for bringing together series that either vary widely in magnitude or are measured in different units and hence cannot be compared conveniently on a chart having only one absolute-amount scale. In general, the double scale treatment should not be used for presenting growth comparisons to the general reader." (Kenneth W Haemer, "Double Scales Are Dangerous", The American Statistician Vol. 2" (3) , 1948)
"One of the methods making the data intelligible is to represent it by means of graphs and diagrams. The graphic & diagrammatic representation of the data is always appealing to the eye as well as to the mind of the observer." (S P Singh & R P S Verma, "Agricultural Statistics", cca. 1969)
"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)
"Pencil and paper for construction of distributions, scatter diagrams, and run-charts to compare small groups and to detect trends are more efficient methods of estimation than statistical inference that depends on variances and standard errors, as the simple techniques preserve the information in the original data." (William E Deming, "On Probability as Basis for Action" American Statistician Vol. 29" (4), 1975)
"Graphic charts are ways of presenting quantitative as well as qualitative information in an efficient and effective visual form. Numbers and ideas presented graphically are often more easily understood. remembered. and integrated than when they are presented in narrative or tabular form. Descriptions. trends. relationships, and comparisons can be made more apparent. Less time is required to present and comprehend information when graphic methods are employed. As the old truism states, 'One picture is worth a thousand words.'" (Robert Lefferts, "Elements of Graphics: How to prepare charts and graphs for effective reports", 1981)
"Modern data graphics can do much more than simply substitute for small statistical tables. At their best, graphics are instruments for reasoning about quantitative information. Often the most effective way to describe, explore, and summarize a set of numbers even a very large set - is to look at pictures of those numbers. Furthermore, of all methods for analyzing and communicating statistical information, well-designed data graphics are usually the simplest and at the same time the most powerful." (Edward R Tufte, "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information", 1983)
"The information on a plot should be relevant to the goals of the analysis. This means that in choosing graphical methods we should match the capabilities of the methods to our needs in the context of each application. [...] Scatter plots, with the views carefully selected as in draftsman's displays, casement displays, and multiwindow plots, are likely to be more informative. We must be careful, however, not to confuse what is relevant with what we expect or want to find. Often wholly unexpected phenomena constitute our most important findings." (John M Chambers et al, "Graphical Methods for Data Analysis", 1983)
"When a graph is constructed, quantitative and categorical information is encoded, chiefly through position, size, symbols, and color. When a person looks at a graph, the information is visually decoded by the person's visual system. A graphical method is successful only if the decoding process is effective. No matter how clever and how technologically impressive the encoding, it is a failure if the decoding process is a failure. Informed decisions about how to encode data can be achieved only through an understanding of the visual decoding process, which is called graphical perception." (William S Cleveland, "The Elements of Graphing Data", 1985)
"A chart is a bridge between you and your readers. It reveals your skills at comprehending the source information, at mastering presentation methods and at producing the design. Its success depends a great deal on your readers ' understanding of what you are saying, and how you are saying it. Consider how they will use your chart. Will they want to find out from it more information about the subject? Will they just want a quick impression of the data? Or will they use it as a source for their own analysis? Charts rely upon a visual language which both you and your readers must understand." (Bruce Robertson, "How to Draw Charts & Diagrams", 1988)
"One important aspect of reality is improvisation; as a result of special structure in a set of data, or the finding of a visualization method, we stray from the standard methods for the data type to exploit the structure or the finding." (William S Cleveland, "Visualizing Data", 1993)
"Using area to encode quantitative information is a poor graphical method. Effects that can be readily perceived in other visualizations are often lost in an encoding by area." (William S Cleveland, "Visualizing Data", 1993)
"A coordinate is a number or value used to locate a point with respect to a reference point, line, or plane. Generally the reference is zero. […] The major function of coordinates is to provide a method for encoding information on charts, graphs, and maps in such a way that viewers can accurately decode the information after the graph or map has been generated. " (Robert L Harris, "Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference", 1996)
"When displaying information visually, there are three questions one will find useful to ask as a starting point. Firstly and most importantly, it is vital to have a clear idea about what is to be displayed; for example, is it important to demonstrate that two sets of data have different distributions or that they have different mean values? Having decided what the main message is, the next step is to examine the methods available and to select an appropriate one. Finally, once the chart or table has been constructed, it is worth reflecting upon whether what has been produced truly reflects the intended message. If not, then refine the display until satisfied; for example if a chart has been used would a table have been better or vice versa?" (Jenny Freeman et al, "How to Display Data", 2008)
"Need to consider outliers as they can affect statistics such as means, standard deviations, and correlations. They can either be explained, deleted, or accommodated" (using either robust statistics or obtaining additional data to fill-in). Can be detected by methods such as box plots, scatterplots, histograms or frequency distributions." (Randall E Schumacker & Richard G Lomax, "A Beginner’s Guide to Structural Equation Modeling" 3rd Ed., 2010)
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