my goal:
to help rid the world of ineffective graphs, one exploding, 3D pie chart at a time
In school, we learn much about language and math. In language, we are taught how to tell stories. In math, we are taught how to make meaning out of numbers. But it's rare that the two are paired: we don't learn how to make stories out of numbers or how to enable data to speak. This means we often rely on our tools to help us understand best practices. And our tools allow us to easily do some very bad things (e.g. 3D, pie charts, meaningless color).
My name is Cole. I've always had a penchant for turning data into pictures and into stories. I've honed my data visualization skills through my work in the Silicon Valley, where in addition to my day job, I also teach a class on communicating effectively with data. I'd like to share what I have learned (and am learning) with you.
Through this blog, I aim to teach storytelling with data through examples and practical tips. My goal is to bring data to life and use it to communicate a story to an audience, with a focus on simplicity and ease of interpretation.
