What are three characteristics of good business scorecard metrics? In constructing an effective metric, the designer needs to look at three factors before setting targets: 1) Simplicity: Is the metric simple and easy to understand? Is there a direct relationship between action and result? For example, say this is a retailer who operates in multiple countries and …
Chart of the Week: Bucket vs. Pail
What’s the difference between a pail and a bucket? According to this chart in Word Geography of the Eastern States (Kurath, 1941), most of the New England and New York use “pail” (triangle) , while Pennsylvania and the lower mid-Atlantic states use “bucket”. Data context: Kurath had local research teams who focused on cities and towns which had been …
Gifts for Data Geeks: My Life in Graphs
Gifts for Data Scientists and other data geeks: My Life in Graphs from Knock Knock Design is a gruided journal where you write about your life using graphs and charts. In Seattle, it’s available at Elliot Bay Book Company in Queen Anne or online through Amazon.
Book of the Week: History of Topographical Maps
The History of Topographical Maps by P D A Harvey is a scholarly survey of how the topographical map was developed, beginning in classical antiquity through medieval times. I saw it in a local used bookshop in Redmond near my house. Cartography has always fascinated me, esoecially thematic maps that visualize data. The book looks like an enjoyable “weekend” …
New Series for 2013: Classification as a Tool of Thought
Classification and taxonomy has always interested me and this year I’d like to examine how classification and grouping impacts analysis. Grouping data in various taxonomies can have a variety of results: disaster, if the categorization scheme hides or suggests arbitrary things when there is no necessary connection or if the connection is biased, or deeply insightful, …
Chart of the Week: Climate: Chennai, Oban, Sapporo
T hree climate charts showing Chennai (Madras) India, Oban, Scotland UK, and Sapporo, Hokkaido Japan. These charts condense monthly climate data — high, low, average temperature, and days of sunshine into one text-based chart. (Source: Wikipedia) Chennai is warm year-round with a distinct rainy season in October-November and light precipitation in Jan – May. Oban is on the western coast …
Smart Fork — Big Data and Healthy Eating
hapi labs is introducing a “smart fork” at CES this year. It is a fork with a built in sensor to track: Fork servings — how long it takes from the plate to the mouth The amount of “fork servings” taken per minute. Intervals between “fork servings”. How long it took to eat a meal. The user can upload and share data …
New Tool: Graph Commons
Graph Commons is a new tool that I’m playing with. Similar to sites like Many Eyes, you can upload data, create graphs, and share with other community members. The tool focuses on network diagrams. Here’s an example of how a taxonomy for architectural types based on the book Isms: Understanding Architecture. I will try to visualize some of …
Start-Cap — RFID enabled bottle cap
Start-cap is a bottlecap with embedded RFID capability. It’s still experimental, but some ideas its creators have explored are “flash-mob” like actions. The cap can enable a glitter cannon in a bar or turn on a spotlight in a bar. It will be interesting to see what happens when the individual caps interact with each other. Interesting innovation if paired witht …
Classifying Sporks, Spifes, and Knorks…
How do you classify eating utensils and odd hybrids like sporks (spoon-fork), spifes (spoon-knife), knorks (knife-fork), sporfs and splayds(spoon-fork-knife)? One way is to classify by utensil and combination of utensils: Fork: semi to solid foods Spoon: liquids to semi-solid foods Knife — solid foods (for preparation) Spork: Fork-Spoon - liquids to solid foods Knork: Fork-knife– semi-to solid foods (including cutting) Spife: Spoon-knife — liquids …