Demonstrating Editorial Focus and Learning About Your Data - Data Visualization: A Successful Design Process - page 62

• Measurements : Looking beyond just the order of magnitude to learn about
the significance of absolute values
• Context : Judging values against the context of averages, standard deviations,
targets, and forecasts.
Using methods like a bar chart will enable comparison across values and
categories to pick out the type of physical qualities just listed, as shown here:
Trends and patterns:
• Direction : Are values changing in an upward, downward, or flat motion?
• Rate of change : How steep or flat do pattern changes occur? Do we see a
consistent, linear pattern, or is it much more exponential in shape?
• Fluctuation : Do we see evidence of consistent patterns or is there significant
fluctuation? Maybe there is a certain rhythm, such as seasonality, or perhaps
patterns are more random
• Significance: : Can we determine if the patterns we see are meaningful signals
or simply represent the noise within the data?