an expression of ignorance
Nearly 40 people responded to our challenge this month, in which we asked participants to identify a situation where it was important to convey uncertainty, and then design a visualization that made that uncertainty clear to the audience. Alberto Cairo, who addresses uncertainty in his upcoming book “How Charts Lie,” provided his thoughts on the challenge, and contributed signed copies of his book for three lucky participants. Our community took a variety of different approaches to the challenge, which makes this month’s gallery an excellent collection of ideas on how to represent uncertainty in different situations.
#SWDchallenge: visualize uncertainty
People like things that are concrete and certain: and so, when we plot our data in a solid point, line, or bar on a graph, it’s easy for people to consider it “truth.” There are times when that is appropriate, and times when it definitely isn’t. Many times, there is uncertainty that we ought to convey in order to provide a more complete picture to the audience. This month’s challenge requires you to identify a scenario and data where there is inherent uncertainty, and design a visualization that makes that clear.