Month: November 2010

Press: Fall enrollment up, decline potentially on horizon

From Mason City Globe-Gazette: A record total of 106,597 full- and part-time students enrolled in community-college courses this school year, a 4.8 percent increase that marked the 14th consecutive yearly rise in the overall student population. Tom Schenk Jr., educational program consultant with the state Department of Education, said this year’s jump followed a 14 […]

Econ 102 – Homework #2

Due Thursday, November 18 by 11p. Update: Made corrections to 1a and 1c. You may use the new spreadsheet or apply the corrections to your current workbook.

Minimalist Basic Graphs

Edward Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, a key book in the area of data visualization and something that is mentioned often in this course, introduced a minimalist theory of graphs. The book, which was minimalistic in both graphing and writing, introduced new varieties of basic graphs that reduced ink usage even further. Mr […]

Not Everything is Under “Insert”: Non-traditional Basic Graphs

Bar charts, line charts, and pie charts…oh, my. Even improving these charts can still lead to a pretty dull layout. Data visualization has gained in popularity, for the most, because eye-catching charts are, well, eye-catching. Usually a graphic designer or statistician needs to create something outside of the traditional basic plots, something outside your Excel’s […]

The Basics of a Basic Graph

Minimalism is the predominant art form in data visualization, especially for the basic graph. It may bore from Excel’s–the workhorse of almost all basic graphs–not-so-minimalist approach to basic graphs. Formally, minimalism is really meant to minimize chart junk. Glyphs, labels, colors, grid lines, axises are all elements of the graph that are meant to help […]