I’ve railed on before about the need to make cold, detached data more relevant and accessible to the working arts manager. After all, if our work isn’t informed by evidence — past performance, financial history, market indicators, demographics, economic measures, and so on — we’re managing on a hunch.
While the obvious response is to develop more thoughtful two-dimensional graphs and charts, Richard Hodge at SpeculativeBubble offers a more visceral approach. His virtual roller coaster turns data points into altitudes, taking you on a ride of relative home values from 1890 to today (click the image in this post to play, or jump to a larger version of the video).
Granted, the roller coaster visualization may not directly inform your strategic decisions (although the ending precipice will make you think twice about buying real estate in 2007). But the effort sure does translate an abstract concept into accessible terms. Imagine charting a similar coaster for your organization’s cash flow, and you’ll realize why your bookkeeper looks so woozy all the time.
Hang on tight, and ”feel” the data.
(Thanks to Mark for the link!)
