Datum Ipsum

Designing robust real-time visualisations with realistic placeholder data

July 9th, 2016

Matthew Ström • @ilikescience • Data Viz Camp 2016

Hi, I'm Matt

@ilikescience

I work for Planetry

http://planetary.io

How many of you are designers?

Expectation

Source: https://dribbble.com/dworkz

Reality

Source: Investopedia

How many of you are designers?

How many of you have taken a statistics class?

Designing real-time data visualisations is hard.

REAL data is not intuitive.

Source: http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

REAL data is not intuitive.

Chance that 2 have the same birthday

# of People

367

100%

99.9%

50%

The Birthday Problem

Real Data is hard to fake.

Benford's law

In any large set of numbers, around 30 percent will begin with the digit 1, 18 percent with 2, and so on, with the smallest percentage beginning with 9.

Real Data is unpredictable.

what's a designer to do?

Global Temperature Mean

https://github.com/datasets/global-temp

Use real data!

Natural Gas Prices

https://github.com/datasets/natural-gas-prices

Use real data!

Oil Prices

https://github.com/datasets/oil-prices

Or...

Use placeholder data!

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Placeholder Text:

Placeholder Data:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin nisi massa, euismod nec volutpat molestie, dictum quis dolor. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Fusce a semper ligula. Vestibulum tempor nibh at velit dapibus, eget semper neque porta. Donec tempor mattis neque, ut sollicitudin nisi facilisis id. Nunc sagittis vulputate dui vel dignissim. Fusce ultrices suscipit mi eget facilisis. Duis non auctor urna. Nullam fringilla commodo mi, varius consequat erat sodales ac. Etiam gravida quam et dictum suscipit.

Doesn't look real

Placeholder Text:

Placeholder Data:

The project was a bold one, full of difficulty, perhaps impracticable. Mr. Fogg was going to risk life, or at least liberty, and therefore the success of his tour. But he did not hesitate, and he found in Sir Francis Cromarty an enthusiastic ally.

As for Passepartout, he was ready for anything that might be proposed. His master's idea charmed him; he perceived a heart, a soul, under that icy exterior. He began to love Phileas Fogg.