Schermann (2019); Skau (2012)

• data sources reliable and verifiable
• due diligence in checking sources
• give attribution
• beware of sampling bias (Cairo 2014)

• transparent/reproducible analysis
  • ethical or professional?
• beware snooping/hacking

• telling a story vs the story
• journalistic, again
• Cairo (2014)

When a designer chooses a graphic form to represent data just because she likes it, while ignoring evidence that may lead her to choose a more appropriate one, her act is morally wrong. It’s not wrong just because she’s not been virtuous or because there is a deontological rule against inappropriate charts, but because her act will likely have negative consequences, such as confusion, obfuscation and misunderstanding." [see “rule utilitarianism”]

Cairo (2020) on “sharpiegate”

• twitter thread

alt-text:

“A set of stairs where each step is a glowing, translucent, glass-like structure jutting out at different angles. Each step has no back wall and gaps in the flooring before the next step. A railing is nested into a wall on one side and the other side is completely open with no railing or wall at all. A stove top is within a short fall from the open side of the stairs.”

• contrast, colour (4.5:1 contrast for text, 3:1 contrast for geometries)
• interactivity can be tricky
• use standard designs!

• always provide “alt-text” for online images
• challenging/time-consuming
• Lundgard and Satyanarayan (2022): analyzing semantic content of alt-text
  • automation possible, but possibly worse than nothing

• think about tradeoffs
• maximize broad utility