Leading newspapers are making  effective use of visualization today. As an  example,  the US treasury bond ownership graphic is far more impactful than a simple listing.

It goes deeper than just a nice graph though, at a recent lecture at Leeds Trinity College,  Guardian Data Blog editor Simon Rogers presented with Tim Berners-Lee about data journalism.

Data journalism involves visualising or scrutinising often complex amounts of statistical information.

TBL had this to say.

"Journalists need to be data-savvy. It used to be that you would get stories by chatting to people in bars, and it still might be that you’ll do it that way some times.

"But now it’s also going to be about poring over data and equipping yourself with the tools to analyse it and picking out what’s interesting. And keeping it in perspective, helping people out by really seeing where it all fits together, and what’s going on in the country."

It seems to me that most professions could do with a solid dose of data visualization and the accompanying scrutiny. I’m not talking here about expensive tools, but about the love of data, and the joy of finding stuff out, getting stuck into the numbers.

I’ve given a couple of lectures on HR topics, and I’ve been hammering home on the analytics topic, but I think next time, I’ll bring some more data visualization to the party. I strongly believe that we need to see more focus on data visualization across all areas of business, but the HR department needs serious help.

I was pleased to read that Google came up with its 8 rules of management.  At first sight they  seem a typical list that one would find in any airport management book, but they are rooted in an empirical study.  Google has built its business on analysing data, so it is  not surprising that they decided to root around in their own HR data.   I do wish more HR departments would fall in love with data.

I think it is possible to be “people-centric” and “data driven” at the same time. Using numbers  to inform decisions and drive buy in isn’t treasonable.

It has given Steve Jobs a sales force that he didn’t know he had. It seems without really planning for it, the iPad has become the must have enterprise device.

But what I’ve not yet seen is the must have enterprise application on the iPad. Yes, I’ve seen some neat repurposed reports and simple entry screens  but I’ve not yet seen an application that makes me sit up and say wow, that is a new and fundamentally better process enabled by the device.  So far the innovation is all about Apple.

If the iPad  means that enterprise software companies build executive dashboards and actually get executives engaging with the software, then fine, okay, that is an improvement from where we are today, but it misses the big opportunity.

Just  fixing the executive user experience has a whiff of the Potemkin about it. It would be a whole lot better if the iPad helped to prompt a rethink of how everyone interacts with enterprise software. Today the iPad merely illustrates the chasm between the typical enterprise software user experience and delightful design.

Tony Hirst, who I linked to the other day about the UK politics mashup, came back and commented on my blog, so I followed a couple of his links and I ended up at the delightful Dataspora blog.

The post the three sexy skills of data geeks is excellent. Here is the concluding paragraph, but read all of it.

Put All Three Skills Together: Sexy. Thus with the Age of Data upon us, those who can model, munge, and visually communicate data — call us statisticians or data geeks — are a hot commodity.  I grew up before the age of geek chic, when the computer wizzes were social pariahs, and feature-length movies were dedicated to nerds seeking revenge.  But in the last decade, Steve Jobs became an icon, the Internet became cool, and an entire generation of tech kids grew up well adjusted.  They even built the social web to prove it.   I believe the same could happen to statistics and data geeks too.

I spent Friday night on the phone with a large company asking about how to sort out their HR analytics issues. My advice was to hire such a person, and not worry too much about whether you need to do the charts on tool a or b. I didn’t put it quite as eloquently as model and munge though.

At the Tokyo Auto Show, Nissan honcho Carlos Ghosn unveiled the GT-R. The car, which hits the US next Spring, features a multifunction dash display that was developed in conjunction with Gran Turismo Polyphony Digital. The display can monitor oil pressure, oil temp, engine coolant temp, transmission oil pressure, turbocharger boost pressure, throttle position, torque split, steering angle and lateral G-force. The Polyphony Digital display can also log data that helps improve driving technique and can help with fuel economy. (Thanks to Brian for the image and the text)

There some other video over on the Gizmodo site.

A car dashboard has many constraints and demands. It needs to inform, warn, and often entertain, but not distract. It needs to work well with peripheral vision. A badly designed dashboard can kill people.

A couple of things impressed me about what Nissan has done.

1. Looking to non-traditional sources for design innovation.

2. Virtual world designs impacting real world product.

3. Real and virtual world symbiosis. (A win win for Nissan and Polyphony)

4. Persona driven design. With the GT-R Nissan and Polyphony knew exactly what sort of user they are building the car for. Not just someone who drives a car, but a particular persona.

 Enterprise software and the Wii.

This got me thinking about enterprise software. Perhaps it is high time we let the folks who design compelling user experiences in the gaming world loose on the enterprise application user experience. I’ve written about experiments such as Wii-hands before, but I’m not aware of anything like what Nissan have done here, bringing in gaming experts to work on a key component of a flagship product. If anyone is, I would love to know more. My wife and I recently got a Wii for our birthdays (thanks gang), and I’ve been amazed how simple it has been to configure and learn. The designers of the Wii have nailed pretty much every single core design principle.  it is a lot of fun to play, but I’m in awe of its design.

(photo from English Cut, one day, I hope to have a suit made there)

There is a lot of excellent cost optimization research going on here at Gartner, and as you would expect it was a key theme at the recent symposium.

My small contribution to the research collection is a note called Workforce Analytics Skills Are Vital for Effective Cost Optimization (you will need to a Gartner client to get full access.) I stressed that few organizations have the workforce analytics systems and skills in place measure where to cut  properly. Without the right analysis first, cuts can damage the organization. One of my favourite HR blogs is The Evil HR lady. She had this to say about cuts and the need for HR  get analytical

We need to not sit by quietly while the "big boys" make the decisions and then carry them out. Are we conducting layoffs? Why? Before we sign on the dotted line we better be showing that his layoff will truly help the company financially. What is the cost of turnover? How come we don’t know this off the top of our heads? (Or at least how to calculate it?) Are we increasing the employee portion of medical expenses? What will be the result of this in terms of turnover? We better be able to build models.
What are models? Crud people, hire yourself some statisticians.

Picking up on this theme, I had a vendor briefing last night from Human Concepts. they have just announced they have acquired Optimize, software used to manage workforce separations, from Taleo Corporation.

I think this is a smart move for both companies, the fit with Human Concepts core organization modelling product is good, and means that Taleo can focus on building  new product on the Taleo Platform, rather than supporting a product they acquired as part of the Vurv takeover. It will be good for the Optimize customers, as the product will receive more attention.

Software alone will not ensure that you do the right thing when cutting, but it is better than simply guessing.

Workforce analytics will be a key part of my and Jim’s  research over the coming months.

(photo via flickrstream of addedentry)

So much of our enterprise systems reporting is still locked into the rows and columns model of reporting. Yes, some vendors have oil gauge type dashboards and yapc (yet another pie chart) but I’ve only seen one or two vendors who really think hard about how to change the way data is displayed.

I came across a super web-site this afternoon. (Thanks Claus) It takes a map of the world and changes the sizes of the countries based on different criteria, such as number of cellphones,or  this example below women in parliament. (the excellent mappingworlds site is here)

Look how small the US is on the map. This is a powerful way of visualizing data, partly because of the  Von Restorff effect. A phenomenon of memory in which noticeably different things are more likely to be recalled than common things. Mapping worlds changes the way the see a common image, the world map. The dissonance is what makes you think and remember.

This TED presentation from Hans Rosling has been watched millions of times. It is a lesson for us all in data visualization data and presenting it.

Imagine if you presented your succession planning data like this? Wouldn’t it have a whole lot more impact? Most of you have years and years of ERP data, why not do something noticeably different with it?