Truth, beauty, and data

# Truth, beauty, and data

**andhs.co/umontreal-dataviz**

.light.small[Andrew Young School of Policy Studies 
Georgia State University 
September 17, 2020]

]

---

# Plan for today

.box-2.medium[Facts, truth, and beauty]

.box-3.medium[Data and beauty]

.box-5.medium[Design and beauty]

.box-7.medium[Moral of the story]

---

layout: false
name: facts-truth-beauty
class: center middle section-title section-title-2 animated fadeIn

# Facts, truth, and beauty

---

---

# What is truth?

.box-inv-2.medium[Core principles of the universe?]

.box-inv-2.medium[Underlying trends in society?]

.box-inv-2.medium[Something transcendental?]

.box-inv-2.medium[Reality?]

---

# How do we find truth?

.box-inv-2.medium[Science!]

.center[
<figure>
 <img src="img/ndgt-scientism.png" alt="Neil deGrasse Tyson on science" title="Neil deGrasse Tyson on science" width="70%">
</figure>
]

???

[Original tweet](https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/345551599382446081)

---

# But wait!

.box-inv-2.medium.sp-after[Beware of scientism!]

.box-2["… promotion of science as the best or only objective means by which society should determine normative and epistemological values"]

???

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism)

---

# Science is not the only way

.box-inv-2.medium[Art]

.box-inv-2.medium[Music]

.box-inv-2.medium[Literature]

.box-inv-2.medium[Religion]

.box-inv-2.medium[Nature]

???

None of these methods deal with raw facts, though!

---

# Nothing here is factual…

.pull-left[
<figure>
 <img src="img/les-mis.jpg" alt="Cosette" title="Cosette" width="100%">
 <figcaption>Cosette from Les Misérables</figcaption>
</figure>
]

.pull-right[
<figure>
 <img src="img/King_Lear.jpg" alt="King Lear" title="King Lear" width="100%">
 <figcaption>King Lear</figcaption>
</figure>
]

]

.pull-right[
<figure>
 <img src="img/beethoven.png" alt="Beethoven's 9th" title="Beethoven's 9th" width="100%">
 <figcaption>Beethoven's 9th symphony</figcaption>
</figure>
]

???

Sources:

- [Cosette](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cosette-sweeping-les-miserables-albert-bellenger-1886.jpg)
- [King Lear](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_Lear.jpg)
- [Beethoven](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beethoven,_Symphony_No._9,_finale,_bars_116-123.png)

---

.box-2.huge[Facts ≠ truth]

---

.box-2.large.sp-after[Where does truth come when there are no facts?]

.box-inv-2.huge[Beauty]

---

---

# Beauty in science

.pull-left.center[

]

.box-inv-2.medium[This is also true for science and math and other more factual realms]

---

# Rhetoric and beauty

.box-inv-2.tiny.sp-after[Logos&emsp;•&emsp;Lexis]

.box-inv-2.sp-after[Content&emsp;•&emsp;Form]

.box-2.medium[Truth&emsp;•&emsp;Beauty]

???

One is the underlying metaphysical meaning—what the author or artist intends. The other is *how* they convey that message—what it looks like, what they used, etc.

---

# Content + form

.box-inv-2.large[Art is how we translate core, essential **content** (or truth!) to different **forms** for specific **audiences**.]

---

# Truth is beautiful

.box-inv-2.medium[Truth ≠ facts]

.box-inv-2.medium.sp-after[Truth comes from aesthetic combination of content and form]

.box-2.medium[Facts require beauty to be true]

---

layout: false
name: data-beauty
class: center middle section-title section-title-3 animated fadeIn

# Data and beauty

---

---

# Just show me the data!

.pull-left-3.small-code[

```r
head(my_data, 10)
```

```
## # A tibble: 10 x 2
## x y
## <dbl> <dbl>
## 1 55.4 97.2
## 2 51.5 96.0
## 3 46.2 94.5
## 4 42.8 91.4
## 5 40.8 88.3
## 6 38.7 84.9
## 7 35.6 79.9
## 8 33.1 77.6
## 9 29.0 74.5
## 10 26.2 71.4
```
]

.pull-middle-3.small-code[

```r
mean(my_data$x)
```

```
*## [1] 54.26327
```

```r
mean(my_data$y)
```

```
*## [1] 47.83225
```

```r
cor(my_data$x, my_data$y)
```

```
*## [1] -0.06447185
```
]

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

---

# oh no

.center[
<figure>
 <img src="img/DinoSequentialSmaller.gif" alt="Datasaurus Dozen" title="Datasaurus Dozen" width="100%">
 <figcaption><a href="https://www.autodeskresearch.com/publications/samestats" target="_blank">The Datasaurus Dozen</a></figcaption>
</figure>
]

---

# Raw data is not enough

.box-inv-3.small[Each of these has the same mean, standard deviation, variance, and correlation]

---

# Humans love patterns

.center[
<figure>
 <img src="img/pattern-processing.png" alt="Pattern processing" title="Pattern processing" width="100%">
 <figcaption><a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2014.00265" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2014.00265</a></figcaption>
</figure>
]

---

# (Sometimes we love them too much)

---

# Beauty is necessary to see patterns

]

.pull-right.center[

]

---

.box-3.large[Beauty is necessary for truth]

---

---

# What makes a good visualization?

.box-inv-3.medium[No substantive issues]

.box-inv-3.medium[No perceptual issues]

.box-inv-3.medium[Honesty + good judgment]

.box-inv-3.medium[Good aesthetics]

.box-3.tiny[Kieran Healy, *Data Visualization: A Practical Introduction*]

---

# What's wrong?

.center[
<figure>
 <img src="img/pie-genus.png" alt="Distribution of genus" title="Distribution of genus" width="60%">
</figure>
]

???

- Aesthetic issues
- Substantive issues
- Perceptual issues
- Honesty + judgment issues

---

# What's wrong?

.center[
<figure>
 <img src="img/changing-face-of-america.png" alt="Changing face of America" title="Changing face of America" width="45%">
</figure>
]

???

- Aesthetic issues
- Substantive issues
- Perceptual issues
- Honesty + judgment issues

---

# What's wrong?

.center[
<figure>
 <img src="img/how-stuff-works-recidivism.png" alt="Recidivism pie chart" title="Recidivism pie chart" width="45%">
</figure>
]

???

- Aesthetic issues
- Substantive issues
- Perceptual issues
- Honesty + judgment issues

---

layout: false
name: beauty-crap
class: center middle section-title section-title-5 animated fadeIn

# Design and beauty

---

---

# Why even care about design?

.center[
<figure>
 <img src="img/why-design.png" alt="Why care about design?" title="Why care about design?" width="100%">
</figure>
]

---

# Beauty, stories, and truth

.box-inv-5.sp-after[**Beauty** shapes that form.]

.box-5.medium[There are aesthetic principles we can follow to create beauty—and truth.]

---

# Principles of design

.box-inv-5.medium[There are thousands of books and centuries of debate and theory about what makes good design.]

.box-5.medium[The easiest and most memorable distillation of these principles is **CRAP**.]

---

# CRAP

]

.pull-right.center[
<figure>
 <img src="img/williams-design-book.jpg" alt="Robin Williams's The Non-Designers Design Book" title="Robin Williams's The Non-Designers Design Book" width="65%">
 <figcaption>Buy this book and your life will change forever.</figcaption>
</figure>
]

---

---

# Contrast

.box-inv-1.large[If two items are not exactly the same, make them different. Really different.]

.box-1.large[**Don't be a wimp.**]

---

# Typographic contrast: Family

.box-1.small[Serif + Sans serif&emsp;&emsp;Script + Serif&emsp;&emsp;Slab + Sans serif&emsp;&emsp;etc.]

<table>
 <tr>
 <td class="cell-left">Serif</td>
 <td class="cell-left" style="font-family: 'EB Garamond'">Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="cell-left">Sans serif</td>
 <td class="cell-left" style="font-family: 'Oswald'">Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="cell-left">Slab serif</td>
 <td class="cell-left" style="font-family: 'Alfa Slab One'">Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="cell-left">Script</td>
 <td class="cell-left" style="font-family: 'Dancing Script'">Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="cell-left">Monospaced&emsp;</td>
 <td class="cell-left" style="font-family: 'Inconsolata'">Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow</td>
 </tr>
</table>

---

# Typographic constrast: Family

.pull-left.frame[

Here’s a heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

]

.pull-right.frame[

Here’s a heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

]

---

# Typographic contrast: Weight

.box-1.small[Bold + Regular&emsp;&emsp;Regular + Extra light&emsp;&emsp;Black + Light&emsp;&emsp;etc.]

<table>
 <tr>
 <td class="cell-left">Extra light&emsp;</td>
 <td class="cell-left" style="font-family: 'Source Sans Pro'; font-weight: 200;">Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="cell-left">Light</td>
 <td class="cell-left" style="font-family: 'Source Sans Pro'; font-weight: 300;">Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="cell-left">Regular</td>
 <td class="cell-left" style="font-family: 'Source Sans Pro'; font-weight: 400;">Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="cell-left">Semi bold</td>
 <td class="cell-left" style="font-family: 'Source Sans Pro'; font-weight: 600;">Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="cell-left">Bold&emsp;</td>
 <td class="cell-left" style="font-family: 'Source Sans Pro'; font-weight: 700;">Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="cell-left">Black</td>
 <td class="cell-left" style="font-family: 'Source Sans Pro'; font-weight: 900;">Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow</td>
 </tr>
</table>

---

# Typographic constrast: Weight

.pull-left.frame[

Here’s a heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

]

.pull-right.frame[

Here’s a heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

]

---

# Color contrast

.box-1.tiny[[color.adobe.com](https://color.adobe.com)]

.pull-left[
<figure>
 <img src="img/triad.png" alt="Triad" title="Triad" width="100%">
 <figcaption>Triad</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
 <img src="img/monochromatic.png" alt="Monochromatic" title="Monochromatic" width="100%">
 <figcaption>Monochromatic</figcaption>
</figure>
]

.pull-right[
<figure>
 <img src="img/complementary.png" alt="Complementary" title="Complementary" width="100%">
 <figcaption>Complementary</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
 <img src="img/complementary-split.png" alt="Split complementary" title="Split complementary" width="100%">
 <figcaption>Split complementary</figcaption>
</figure>
]

---

# Color contrast

.center[
<figure>
 <img src="img/palette-atl-extracted.png" alt="Extracted colors" title="Extracted colors" width="50%">
 <figcaption>Colors extracted from an image at <a href="https://color.adobe.com">color.adobe.com</a></figcaption>
</figure>
]

???

Photo by [Brad Huchteman](https://unsplash.com/photos/sR1Kz2auNJE) on Unsplash

---

# Usability and accessibility

.box-inv-1.medium[Perceptually uniform colors]

.box-1[Values close to each other use similar colors, and values far from each other use different colors]

.box-inv-1.medium[Colorblind-safe colors]

---

# Perceptually uniform colors

.pull-left[
<figure>
 <img src="img/palettes-typical.png" alt="Typical palettes" title="Typical palettes" width="100%">
 <figcaption>Traditional palettes vs. viridis</figcaption>
</figure>
]

.pull-right[
<figure>
 <img src="img/palettes-deuteranopic.png" alt="Deuteranopic palettes" title="Deuteranopic palettes" width="100%">
 <figcaption>Traditional palettes vs. viridis as seen with deuteranopia</figcaption>
</figure>
]

---

# Perceptually uniform colors

.pull-left-3[
<figure>
<img src="slides_files/figure-html/ga1-1.png" width="360" style="display: block; margin: auto;" />

<figcaption>Georgia counties filled by area, rainbow palette (NOT GOOD)</figcaption>
</figure>
]

.pull-middle-3[
<figure>
<img src="slides_files/figure-html/ga2-1.png" width="360" style="display: block; margin: auto;" />

<figcaption>Georgia counties filled by area, viridis::viridis palette</figcaption>
</figure>
]

.pull-right-3[
<figure>
<img src="slides_files/figure-html/ga3-1.png" width="360" style="display: block; margin: auto;" />

<figcaption>Georgia counties filled by area, viridis::inferno palette</figcaption>
</figure>
]

---

---

# Repetition

&nbsp;

.box-4.large[Repeat some aspect of the design throughout the entire piece.]

---

# Things to repeat

.box-4.medium[Colors]

.box-4.medium[Fonts]

.box-inv-4.sp-after[Families, weights, sizes]

.box-4.medium[Graphical elements]

.box-4.medium[Alignments]

---

layout: false
class: bg-full
background-image: url("img/oxfam-annual-report.jpg")

???

Source: Pages 5 and 9 from Oxfam's 2019 Annual Report/: https://assets.oxfamamerica.org/media/documents/2019_Oxfam_America_Annual_Report_web.pdf

If you want to see generally great examples of public sector designs, search for "<big charity or think tank name> annual report", like "red cross annual report" or "urban institute annual report"

---

---

# Alignment

&nbsp;

.box-1.large[Every item should have a visual connection with something else on the page.]

---

# Alignment

.pull-left[
<figure>
 <img src="img/alignment-bad.png" alt="Bad alignment" title="Bad alignment" width="100%">
 <figcaption>Bad alignment</figcaption>
</figure>
]

.pull-right[
<figure>
 <img src="img/alignment-good.png" alt="Good alignment" title="Good alignment" width="100%">
 <figcaption>Good alignment—everything is connected to something</figcaption>
</figure>
]

???

Source: Robin Williams, *The Non-Designer's Design Book*

---

# Alignment + repetition

.pull-left[
<figure>
 <img src="img/alignment-bad-annotated.png" alt="Bad alignment" title="Bad alignment" width="100%">
 <figcaption>4 vertical alignments; 3 horizontal alignments</figcaption>
</figure>
]

.pull-right[
<figure>
 <img src="img/alignment-good-annotated.png" alt="Good alignment" title="Good alignment" width="100%">
 <figcaption>1 shared vertical alignment; 2 horizontal alignments</figcaption>
</figure>
]

---

# Alignment + contrast

.pull-left.frame[

Chapter 1

Here’s a title

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

]

.pull-right.frame[

Chapter 1

Here’s a title

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, con&shy;sec&shy;tetur adi&shy;pis&shy;icing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor in&shy;ci&shy;di&shy;dunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

]

---

---

# Proximity

&nbsp;

.box-inv-4.large[Group related items together.]

---

# Proximity

.box-inv-4[Use white space, color, location, contrast, repetition, alignment, etc. to make visually distinct groupings]

.pull-left[
<figure>
 <img src="img/proximity-bad.png" alt="Bad proximity" title="Bad proximity" width="100%">
 <figcaption>Bad proximity; no logical groupings</figcaption>
</figure>
]

.pull-right[
<figure>
 <img src="img/proximity-good.png" alt="Good proximity" title="Good proximity" width="100%">
 <figcaption>Good proximity; information visually grouped</figcaption>
</figure>
]

???

Source: Robin Williams, *The Non-Designer's Design Book*

---

---

# CRAP review

<figure>
 <img src="img/review-contrast.png" alt="Contrast" title="Contrast" width="100%">
</figure>
]

<figure>
 <img src="img/review-repetition.png" alt="Repetition" title="Repetition" width="100%">
</figure>
]
]

<figure>
 <img src="img/review-alignment.png" alt="Alignment" title="Alignment" width="100%">
</figure>
]

<figure>
 <img src="img/review-proximity.png" alt="Proximity" title="Proximity" width="100%">
</figure>
]
]

---

# CRAP in action

.center[
<img src="slides_files/figure-html/ggplot-before-1.png" width="75%" style="display: block; margin: auto;" />
]

---

# CRAP in action

---

layout: false
name: moral-story
class: center middle section-title section-title-7 animated fadeIn

# Moral of the story

---

---

# Moral of the story

.box-inv-7.medium.sp-after[Facts require beauty to be true]

.box-inv-7.medium.sp-after[You can (and should) develop these skills!]

.box-inv-7.medium[*Care* about design.]

---

.box-7.medium[andhs.co/umontreal-dataviz]