Comments on: Nightingale’s Rose

By: Herbert

Herbert — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 10:50:19 +0000

What’s your data source? The table on http://understandinguncertainty.org/node/214 gives different values.

Total number of deaths by zymotic deceases in January 1855
2761 vs. ~1500 in your chart…

By: Sue Franklyn

Sue Franklyn — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 04:09:04 +0000

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) seeks permission to reproduce a small amount of text from the following material:

Source Details: http://dd.dynamicdiagrams.com/2008/01/nightingales-rose/

Publication: Nightingale’s Rose
Author: Henry Woodbury
Publisher/Year: Dynamic diagrams: January 9, 2008, 4:06 pm

Material requested: 37 words slightly adapted – see below

Woodbury’s text:
Nightingale overdramatised the evidence that made her case.
Nightingale’s diagram represents one of the inherent risks in visual explanation. An image may be so visually interesting….. that we assume its conclusions without examining its data.

Our text:
Nightingale overdramatised the evidence that made her case.
Nightingales’ diagram, however, illustrates one of the inherent risks in graphical representation: an image may be so visually interesting that we draw conclusions without adequate scrutiny of the data.

ACER is a not-for-profit organisation primarily engaged in the research, development and dissemination of knowledge and tools in education.

ACER is developing an examination for use in international schools in which English is the language of instruction.
Purpose: Examination booklet
Print run: 20,000
Print date: 4 July 2011
Duration: Ongoing
Territory: Worldwide excluding Canada

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, though when responding please quote reference: 123924 Nightingale’s Rose.

By: criggs

criggs — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:44:24 +0000

I saw this on Marcus du Sautoy’s excellent prgramme on diagrams last night (BBC4). Forget all the numbers, it’s just a far better design than your dry stick charts; after all, persuasion and impact were the name of the game. It just looks great, like two eyes looking at you. Go Flo I say.

By: Rasoul Shahilow

Rasoul Shahilow — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 21:03:43 +0000

An absolute effective way of conveying information, i didn’t know before

By: Rocker!

Rocker! — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 13:49:09 +0000

yeaaa

By: Seth Frantzman

Seth Frantzman — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 13:10:21 +0000

A very interesting explanation and presentation.

By: Tomato

Tomato — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:37:30 +0000

Another way of presenting it that would also allow for clear comparision between the areas, and also emphasise just how many deaths were preventable would be as a percentage share graph similar to the one on this page: http://www.marketmodelers.com/service2.aspx It would show the % of total deaths by cause in each month, and each month would add up to 100.

The benefit is that even in months with very few total deaths, you could also see that a large proportion of deaths were still avoidable, which is somewhat hard to see on existing charts in the article.

By: Andy P

Andy P — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:35:12 +0000

Seems like a line graph would be easier to follow in the final diagram; it’s hard to pick out the red from the purple as bars. “Event” annotations would also be useful. Why did deaths from disease fall from Jan 1855? Presumably that was when Ms Nightingale began her work. Don’t make the reader look up the Wikipedia article to confirm that – show it on the graph!

By: Giles

Giles — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:51:23 +0000

Why do you have 1954 on both charts… on the right hand one it should be 1854 on the left 1856 I assume?
Also the March date on the right looks like 1885 and not 1855, this may just be the type setting.
G

By: Oman

Oman — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 13:15:39 +0000

I arrived here via the BBC – the information will appear differently as a line chart and if ‘events’ were included, some sense of cause / effect might be achieved