A chart that stops the story-telling impetus
From the post:
We all like to tell stories. One device that has produced a lot of stories, and provoked much imagination is the dual-axis plot showing two time series. Is there a correlation or is there not? Unfortunately, most of these stories are false.
The post proceeds to illustrate that the relationship it depicts isn’t present in another presentation of the data. (Using “…home sales and median home price in Claremont over the last six years…” as a data set.
I don’t disagree that a different depiction of the same data is, well, different, but that was the point of the exercise. Yes?
That is to say that I would not make a chart of data that contradicted some point I was trying to make in an argument. Or at least that I understood was contradicting some point I was trying to make.
My personal rule is that when someone shows me a chart, statistics, test results, analysis of any sort, they are trying to persuade me that one or more facts are the case. What else would they be trying to do? (There is annoy me but let’s set that case to one side.)
I think library students and others need to be aware that vendors use charts and other means of persuasion because they are marketing a product. Not in bad faith because they may really believe their product will suit your needs as well as their need for a sale. A win-win situation.
What you need to do is push back with your understanding of the “facts,” with your own charts or interpretation of their charts.
Just as a tip, have your needs and your users’ needs depicted in colorful charts for sales meetings. So you can put a big red X on any feature you need that the vendor doesn’t offer. That is the card/chart you need to have on top of the stack at all times.