I don't need HELP on how to make graphs so much as I always struggle, when going through lots of data, how to tease out the key pieces of info and put together just the right graph(ic) to make it obvious to everyone who isn't a data geek. (I think the New York Times does a great job of this, and Business Week often does, as well. I would say USA Today does NOT - they just make fancy bar charts and pie graphs, for the most part).

So my question is, is there a forum or board or something that anyone knows of, where folks can post sample data or sample graphs, etc., and get suggestions, feedback, and the like?

The only other place I've SEEN is Tableau's forums, but that's more how-to-put-the-graph-together-once-you-know-what-it-should-look-like. I want help figuring out what it should look like, first.

There ought to be a "CocktailNapkin" application!

    THANKS for suggestions.

What software are you using or what software, if any, do you have for creating graphs?  Do you have Microsoft Excel?  If so, have you used it to creates graphs/charts?  If you are using, or could use, Excel, then look at some online tutorials, such as http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/excelcharts/ss/Chart_wiz_step.htm, or visit one or more Excel forums.  I DO use Excel - that's what feeds Tableau - but I'm not asking about software. In fact, this is largely due to the fact that I am so far beyond bored with Excel's standard graphing packages.

I'm more interested in... "If this is the data, what does the 'picture' look like?" In other words, if you can draw it on a cocktail napkin, I can figure out (at least I can find resources who can do it, so same thing, really) how to make the data graph it.

I've been looking at Tufte's stuff, and how places like the New York Times presents info, and it's really clever.

I'd like to appear to be clever.

So, in short, is there a place "like this" but instead of offering advice and counsel, re: computer issues, I can find counsel and advice re: how to present the garbage that comes out of the computer?

Just thought someone here might know of something...



For instance, I have a behavioral survey I've done - where people PICK where they are on a spectrum - and I'd really like some way to present that in a way that tells a compelling story.

So, here's an example of the type of question asked:


Attached is sample data.

And then in Tableau, I can do a sort of "heat map" that shows how prevalant each answer is. Averages aren't the right statistic to use for this type of measure, but I include it because everyone asks, anyway.



http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/GarbageTest/Sheet1?:embed=y&:display_count=no

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