003  |  How do you evaluate visualization?

Hi there, we made it to the third episode (a bit late though, Moritz was travelling to SXSW).

In this episode we first answer to some of the questions we received and then we move on to the main topic: how do you evaluate visualization? We have been discussing some contests in episode #2 and thought evaluation is really a key issue there.

Breakdown of the episode

[00:00] Intro
[01:34] Listener question: Terms and conditions in competitions
[03:46] Listener question: Connect research and practitioners
[07:43] Listener question: How to stay objective about your own work?
[10:23] Listener question: Do we criticize each other?
[11:15] Listener question: How to introduce business people to benefits of visualization beyond Excel?
[13:58] News: Visualizing sprint
[15:54] News: Kartograph
[19:40] SxSW Panel: Intent and Impact: How Visualization Makes a Change
[21:36] Quality criteria and evaluating information visualizations: traditional academic approach
[28:08] Evaluation beyond simple, clear-cut tasks
[33:13] Enrico admits his secret love of David MacCandless
[33:58] Andrew Vande Moere and Helen Purchase: On the role of design in information visualization
[35:00] Truth and Beauty or: “I know it when I see it”
[38:36] Data politics and importance of how the end product came about
[40:36] Tamara Munzner’s nested model for visualization evaluation and design
[44:25] Code of ethics
[45:59] Wrap up and outlook

Links and images

Research papers mentioned in the episode

Have fun and, as usual, let us know what you think!

6 comments

  1. Ryo says:

    Another great episode! Thank you for answering my questions and sharing very interesting links and papers. Looking forward to the next episode. (p.s. it is he)

  2. Dear Enrico and Moritz, I’m a student at UVA (Amesterdam University) I’m finishing – hopefully – my thesis on the topic of “visualizing data city”.
    I just wanted to let you know that I find this podcast idea very useful and exciting. On this episode, I particularly enjoyed listening Enrico talk about the academic approach on infovis quality and evaluation. I wish you loads of episodes 🙂 it’s a pleasure to listen to you guys! The more serious stuff as well as the jokes. What in the first episode seemed like an “improbable duet” (an Italian and a German) is now something I long for : )

  3. Andrew Saul says:

    Hey guys,

    Have just started listening to the podcast and am really really enjoying it. I get a lot out of each episode and I can use quite a bit of that directly in my job.
    Especially I find the links/notes of what was discussed in the show very useful.
    Keep up the good work.

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