Reaction: Effectively Communicating Numbers

Representation of quantitative data in business is very important.This representation is mostly done using graphs. The paper mainly deals with apt graphical designs to show business data.

The author with a very nice example shows the importance and strengths of graphical representation to show quantitative data. The author has designed certain steps so as to select the best graphs to communicate quantitative data.

The author puts light onto the differences is table and graphs,quantitative and categorical data. There are three types of categorical scales namely nominal,ordinal and interval.

The paper describes how numbers get interesting when compared to other numbers. There are seven common relationships in quantitative business data.Out of all the time-series relationship is the most widely used.

There are four objects that work the best for encoding data in graphs and those are lines,points,bars and boxes.The right selection of color ,size are other factors that help in making the graph look better.

On laying this basics for selection of graph the author has described the steps for graph selection and design process.The author concludes hoping that these design tips will help in improving graph selection used by people to represent quantitative data.