Let my people see, and analyze
Along the lines of mycrocosm, DAYTUM brings Nicholas Feltron’s visual style to the world of micro-infographics.
Both tools are worth playing with for drafting lifecharts. DAYTUM, the prettier of the two, relies on too many mouse clicks for data entry. Mycrocosm’s text-based data capture is quicker but is not robust against typos. What both tools really need is an API so that we can pull our data into more brawny statistics packages. Many Eyes has been pushing the goal of data democratization for several years. Many Eyes is attempting to crush much larger data sets than the two micro sites but still ultimately relies on our own visual competencies. Plotting data is essential. Essential but only the first step (although as readers know some folks skip even this step). Many Eyes may guide you nicely from data to visualization, but it does not help you to conclude anything beyond what your eyes tell you. Why don’t we demand more analytic oomph from these tools? I studied statistics in high school but it did not stick. It was not until graduate school that I found a use for statistics. This is wrong. Undergraduates in my department are required to take statistics but most of them (according to the professors) never use it after they graduate. This is sad. Everyone having a basic literacy in statistics might not solve any problems, but it is damn worth a try.
