FREE DM Review Site Registration!
Sign-up today and access DM Review on the Web!

Your FREE registration entitles you to:
FREE email newsletters

FREE access to all DM Review content

FREE access to web seminars, resource portals, our white paper library and more!

   
BI Review content and features are now in DMReview.com!

One brand, one Web site! DM Review is now the home of all the content you're used to at BIReview.com and much more. If you are registered at BIReview.com, you're already registered at DM Review. If not, take just a moment to sign up for all the free services we have for you at the new DMReview.com.

3-D Data Visualization From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

For over 125 years, 3-D visualizations have been productively used to understand data. The advance of technology in the late 20th century has enabled 3-D imagery to deliver sublime insights in to complex data relationships, as well as ridiculous images that attract the eye but obscure more than they reveal. There are reasons why sublime 3-D images are exceedingly rare in a business context. There are also reasons why, in many environments, ridiculous 3-D images are common in a large number of business meetings.

Many of the sublime 3-D images can only be created with a supercomputer and a staff of experts. These images are typically used to model complex processes in the physical world, which cannot be understood in any other way. Such an image represents thousands of data points, and sometimes even tens or hundreds of thousands. These require expensive data visualization software packages and extensive thought and preparation for their development.

Ridiculous 3-D images, on the other hand, can be rendered on any desktop or laptop computer by anyone with rudimentary skills. Such visualizations are typically created simply because the universally available office suites, or BI software, allow them to be made. They usually represent a very simple data set of ten to twenty data points, and often represent very little thought in their development.

An Example of 'The Sublime'

In scientific data visualizations, each of the three axes often represents a different data dimension of the 'physical world.' Furthermore, each of the dimensions happens to be a continuous ratio or interval scale. For example, we can imagine modeling the development of thunderstorms spawning tornados, where the three axes represent longitude, latitude, and altitude; then, symbol size, shape, color, and texture, can be used to represent other dimensions such as temperature, humidity, wind speed/direction, and water droplet size.

Such an image is shown in Figure 1. This can be animated to show the development of the thunderstorms and tornados over time. With time compressed, over a very short period we can gain a tremendous understanding of massive amounts of data. The 3-D visual metaphor works so well here because we have much experience in relating to the three spatial dimensions of the physical world, and this visualization is using those spatial dimensions in a manner similar to our experience.

Figure 1

An animation of Figure 1 may be seen on the NASA Web site. That animation represents a computer simulation of the atmosphere over Illinois and parts of Missouri, Iowa, Indiana and Kentucky on April 19, 1996 when 36 tornados were documented in Illinois. It is as if we were in a very high altitude observation balloon, looking north over the region. Such visualizations are of immense value in studying the development and possible prediction of tornadic storms.

An Example of 'The Ridiculous'

In business, we stretch beyond our common experience of the physical world when two of our three dimensions are used for categorical data - such as 'region' and 'quarter' categories. As shown in Figure 2, this is sometimes called a 'skyscraper chart' and it presents a number of problems in perception and understanding.

Figure 2: The Skyscraper Chart

Let's put the image to the test and ask three common business-related questions about the data.

Questions:

  1. How does the sales revenue for the SW and NE regions compare for Q2?
  2. In Q3, the sales revenue of the NE region was what percent larger than the other regions?
  3. Are the SE and SW regions following a similar trend in quarterly sales revenue performance?

Test yourself and your colleagues, but before checking the answers below, ask the same questions about the data while looking at Figure 3; here the same data is presented as a common line chart. Test yourself now, before you read the answers.

Figure 3: The Line Chart

Answers:

  1. The sales revenue for the SW and NE regions happens to be identical for Q2. This is difficult to see in the skyscraper chart but clearly evident in the line chart.
  2. In Q3, the sales revenue of the NE region is 100% larger than the SW and 33 percent larger than the NW. In the skyscraper chart it has an unknown relationship to the SE region, because the data is completely obscured. In the line chart it is easy to see that NE sales revenue is 50 percent greater than in the SE.
  3. The two SE region bars that we can see in the skyscraper chart (Q2 & Q4) have the same trend as the SW region, but the data from other quarters is completely hidden. In the line chart, it is evident that the quarterly trends are roughly similar with the SW Region having a larger drop-off in those previously obscured quarters.

The results of this test suggest that 3-D images, like the skyscraper chart, have very little value for understanding the reality in business data. Yes, they may 'attract the eye' but it should be clear that they also 'obscure more than they reveal.' It would seem that business meetings, and executive dashboards, should focus more on communicating a clear and efficient understanding of the data than on forcing people to squint at an incomprehensible image on the screen.

Our 'ridiculous' 3-D image represents only 16 data points, typical of many examples seen in business; whereas the data-rich 3-D images created for scientific visualizations have three to four orders of magnitude more data. Skyscraper charts can be created on any personal computer, and students from elementary school through MBA and doctoral programs are often encouraged to create these by instructors eager to see students learn more of the features of the available software. Just because a 'feature' is available, there is no reason that it has to be used. For the most part, the 3-D skyscraper chart is an inappropriate use of technology.

Organizations need to set standards for graphic communication - graphicacy standards. These are similar to the standards we hold for linguistic communication - literacy standards. With such standards we minimize the 'ridiculous' in all of our communication and enhance the effectiveness of our business meetings and our decision making.


Howard A. Spielman, M.B.A., Ph.D., President of Management Semiotics International Inc., can be reached at HASpielman@ManagementSemiotics.com.

For more information on related topics, visit the following channels:



Industry Vendors