Maps and Numbers, by Jeffrey Veen

Maps and Numbers

I've written before about lying with statistics -- it's a particular obsession of mine ever since I read Tufte's books years ago and began to understand how information design affects the transition from data to information to knowledge. The problem really isn't lying so much as it is an unknowing misrepresentation of "truth" based on a lack of clear thinking applied to design skills.

Case in point: have a look at the map of California's recall election results, published as an official document by the Secretary of State. Then, take the time to read through Jonathan Corum's fantastic analysis of mapping statistics to area, which the map does. His alternative visual representations of the election results are beautiful and paint a far more accurate picture of how votes were cast by Californians.

I don't suppose Microsoft could add a "fair and balanced representation" option to the charting features in Excel? (via Mr. Haughey)

This entry was written by Jeffrey Veen and posted 25 November 2003 at 9:09 AM. It was filed under Information Architecture.

Comments

1. On 25 November 2003 at 9:24 AM Matt Haughey wrote:

I hope you saw this map from the 2000 election, done by Dan Hartung.

http://web.archive.org/web/20010414034632/http://www.dhartung.com/misc/electoral.html

Here's a recent explanation of it from him and the original discussion of it three years ago.

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/29498#582469
http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/4245

2. On 26 November 2003 at 6:27 PM Tanny O'Haley wrote:

The problem with Jonathan Corum's analysis is that his numbers are wrong. He gives:

Schwarzenegger (3,744,132 votes = 7,488 pixels)
Bustamante (2,434,484 votes = 4,869 pixels)

Where the California Secretary of State map gives:

Arnold Schwarzenegger 4,203,596
Cruz M. Bustamante 2,723,768

If you add in Tom McClintock's 1,160,182 votes, you get a huge victory for conservatives. Jonathan Corum's analysis makes it look much closer than it is because of the incorrect number of votes.