Gregory Heller

Author: gregoryheller

  • I love pie, I hate pie charts

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    gregoryheller
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    Reading through Tableau’s recent white paper, Which Chart Or Graph Is Right For You, I was heartened to see this explanation of pie carts: Pie charts should be used to show relative proportions – or percentages – of information. That’s it. Despite this narrow recommendation for when to use pies, they are made with abandon.…

  • Time and money will be wasted

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    This weekend 80 to 100 coders will join others at the Seattle Hack The Commute Hackathon. The one thing I can guarantee that will happen is time and money will be wasted. Some might say I am being negative, but I firmly believe there is no software that can solve the commute and traffic problems…

  • The Circular Timeline, My Data Visualization Nemesis

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    gregoryheller
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    In a few recent presentations/trainings that I’ve given through my work at Resource Media on the topic of data visualization, I’ve pointed to one particular circular timeline visualization that drives me crazy. It’s the “sleep habits of geniuses” visualization that came out in the summer of 2014, and made the rounds on blogs and news…

  • Thinking about Data Visualization

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    gregoryheller
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    I’ve been getting deeper into data visualization, and will probably work on sharing more about it here on the site. But for starters, I wanted to share this quote I found in an article/book review about infographics (the author, Steven Heller, is no relation). This is the paragraph that I thought was best, and the emphasis…

  • Share Vs. Rent

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    I am constantly surprised  (and a little dismayed) when an article that is ostensibly about sharing, and the sharing economy talks about renting. This quote,”You could start to equalize standards of living if you allow people who have a lot of stuff to comfortably rent out things to people who don’t,” from  Arun Sundararajan, and…

  • Share Vs Rent

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    gregoryheller
    in

    I am constantly surprised  (and a little dismayed) when an article that is ostensibly about sharing, and the sharing economy talks about renting. This quote,“You could start to equalize standards of living if you allow people who have a lot of stuff to comfortably rent out things to people who don’t,” from  Arun Sundararajan, and…

  • Movement Calendar Visualized

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    gregoryheller
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    I took this movement calendar and shoehorned it into the Knight Lab Timeline script generator to create this:

  • Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Rules For Writing Fiction

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    gregoryheller
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    I love these, and I don’t even write fiction, but I think they can apply to nonfiction too. Especially 1, 2, 7, and 8: Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Rules For Writing Fiction Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. Give the…

  • Planning a panel that pops

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    gregoryheller
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    Originally posted on the Resource Media blog: Picture this: You are at a conference and sitting in a panel session and get that sinking feeling that you chose the wrong session. Your first signal is the lengthy introductions given by the moderator for each panelist, each taken verbatim from the bios in your conference packet.…

  • Digital Cameras Are Messing With Your Memory

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    gregoryheller
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    Digital Cameras Are Messing With Your Memory New research finds a photo-taking-impairment effect: when people take a picture they forget the moment. This is a very interesting article, and certainly worth reading if you are a snap happy digital camera fiend. In a paper set for publication in Psychological Science, Henkel calls her finding the “photo-taking-impairment effect.” When…