{"id":282,"date":"2010-04-25T14:29:50","date_gmt":"2010-04-25T14:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=282"},"modified":"2010-04-25T14:29:50","modified_gmt":"2010-04-25T14:29:50","slug":"can-you-see-a-story-in-your-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=282","title":{"rendered":"Can We See a Story in the Data?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I often hear the comments\u00a0“I cannot see the wood for the trees”,\u00a0“I am drowning in an ocean of data”\u00a0and “I cannot\u00a0identify the cause of the problem”.\u00a0\u00a0We have data,\u00a0we\u00a0know there is a problem and we sense there is a soluton; the gap seems to be\u00a0using the data to find a solution to the problem.<\/p>\n

Most\u00a0quantitative data is presented as\u00a0tables of columns and\u00a0rows\u00a0of numbers; and is indigestable\u00a0by the majority of people.\u00a0\u00a0Numbers are a recent\u00a0invention on a biological timescale and we have not yet evolved to\u00a0effortlessly process data presented in that format. We are visual animals and\u00a0we have evolved to be\u00a0very good at seeing patterns\u00a0in pictures – because it was critical to\u00a0survival.\u00a0 Another recent\u00a0invention is spoken language\u00a0and, long before writing was invented,\u00a0accumulated\u00a0knowledge and wisdom\u00a0was passed down by word of mouth as\u00a0legends, myths\u00a0and stories. Stories\u00a0are general descriptions that suggest specific solutions.\u00a0So why do we have such difficulty in extracting the story from the\u00a0data?\u00a0Perhaps it is because we use\u00a0our ears to\u00a0hear stories\u00a0that are\u00a0communicated in words and we use our eyes to see patterns in pictures.\u00a0 Presenting quantitative data as streams of printed\u00a0symbols\u00a0just doesn’t work\u00a0as well.\u00a0 To see the story in the data we need to present it as a picture and then\u00a0talk about what we perceive.<\/p>\n

Here are some data – a series of numbers\u00a0recorded\u00a0over a period of time\u00a0– what is the story?<\/p>\n

47, 55, 40, 52, 55, 70, 60, 43, 51, 41, 73, 73, 79, 89, 83, 86, 78, 85, 71, 70<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is the same data\u00a0converted into a picture.\u00a0 You can see the message in the data\u00a0… something changed between measurement 10 and\u00a011.\u00a0 The\u00a0chart does not tell us why it\u00a0changed – it only tells us when it happened and\u00a0sugegsts what to look for – anything that is capable\u00a0of causing\u00a0the effect we can see.\u00a0\u00a0We now have a\u00a0story and our curiosity is\u00a0aroused. We want\u00a0an explanation;\u00a0we want to understand;\u00a0we want to learn; and\u00a0we\u00a0want to improve.\u00a0\u00a0(For source of data and image visit\u00a0www.valuesystemdesign.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

A picture can save a thousand words and ten thousand numbers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I often hear the comments\u00a0“I cannot see the wood for the trees”,\u00a0“I am drowning in an ocean of data”\u00a0and “I cannot\u00a0identify the cause of the problem”.\u00a0\u00a0We have data,\u00a0we\u00a0know there is a problem and we sense there is a soluton; the gap seems to be\u00a0using the data to find a solution to the problem. Most\u00a0quantitative data … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Can We See a Story in the Data?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,25,34,41,42,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-examples","category-information","category-questions","category-stories","category-how","category-what"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}