Steve & Me

I cannot count myself among those lucky enough to have worked with, interviewed, met, or even to have seen Steve Jobs. The chart, above, is the closest I ever got to the man who changed forever how we think of design.

1n 2002, Fortune magazine’s Andy Serwer wrote a piece about Dell and it’s mounting domination of the PC market. To accompany the story was to be a fairly standard chart showing shifts in market share of the top ten U.S. PC makers.

I plotted the data in various chart formats. The fever chart was very dramatic. It showed Dell zooming from sixth position in 1994 to the number one position five years later. But the bar chart was impressive too. That showed how enormous a chunk of the market Dell owned, selling a quarter of all PCs, up from less than 5% in 1994. The problem was that the fever chart showed movement, but didn’t communicate the size of Dell’s share, while the bar chart showed size, but didn’t visualize Dell outpacing the competition.

Instead of choosing one, or showing both, I decided to try combining the fever and the bar chart. It might not seem like a big deal now, but at the time, what has become know as the “ribbon chart,” was a huge hit. I got lots of letters asking me what software I used, and the magazine got letters to the editor for once about a chart, which didn’t have to do with an error or other misrepresentation.

A few weeks later, I got a voicemail from our writer on the West Coast who covered the technology industry. Steve Jobs wanted to use the chart in a presentation and could I provide a PDF?

A couple of things struck me. One was how validating it is to have God (Gawker's claim not withstanding) ask to use your chart in a presentation. The other was that the CEO interested in using the graphic was certainly not using it to self-congratulate. By late 2001, Apple’s market share had slipped from third to sixth place—exactly where Dell had been when our chart began in 1994, and with the same 4.2% share. I guess the chart made Jobs see red (the color used was coincidental), and an opportunity to somehow “motivate” his audience.

And motivate, he did …

Miles per Dollar, the New MPG

Great infotisement for the completely electric Nissan LEAF. Chart compares distance traveled by various cars, for the cost of one dollar. Hey, when you've got it (the data on your side), flaunt it.

via PSFK

Exxon's Layered Bars of Meaning

The cover of ExxonMobil's recent annual report, folds out to reveal a lavish chart illustrated with photos of various types of energy. It shows the history of energy demand in the U.S. by source back to 1850 and projected out to 2030.

Interesting that they chose to show demand with bars all the same height, plotting percentage and not actual amounts. This is completely kosher and correct and this is exactly how to display the data for the story Exxon wants to tell: By 2030, the mix of our energy use in the U.S. will have shifted to cleaner sources. I am posting this because I thought it was an excellent example of “message management” with infographics. Exxon clearly wants to show that oil consumption is decreasing, and that they are being smart and responsible for investing heavily in natural gas (which is cleaner than oil). Keep in mind, however that the segments show demand ONLY AS A PERCENT OF TOTAL.

A few pages into the report, after CEO, Rex Tillerson’s letter to shareholders, we learn that worldwide energy demand between 2005 and 2030, will have increased by 35%. Over that same period, even with all the legislation, technology, and international agreements, energy-related CO2 emissions will still have increased 25%. So as you can see in their much more modestly produced chart, below, when actual amounts are plotted, the picture is not nearly as pretty.

I think that their choice to depict oil in green was carefully calculated as well.