After an incredible Tableau conference in London, I headed to Dublin for two more days of data viz and Tableau training.  Today’s class was about brain games and data visualization, my favorite class to teach.

I end the class with a simple exercise that I want to share.

I don’t remember where I found this idea on the web, but credit to whoever came up with the idea.  (UPDATE 14-Jun: Thank you to readers Michael Cristiani and Joey for reminding me that it came from this post from Santiago Ortiz on the visual.ly blog!)

It always amazes me how many different ideas people come up with.  The purpose isn’t necessarily to get them to only use what they’ve learned; it’s more of a way for them to be creative and have some fun.  Inevitably several people create pie charts, the only reason being that they know I hate them.

There were about 25 people in the class and they came up with 73 ideas in about 10 minutes.  Pretty good ROI!

This is so perfect!

The genius that created this said: "Needed to do a pie chart... so bought an apple pie at M&S, cut the percentages, and shot the pic. Pudding was served later with custard! ;-)"

Jessica Hagy has possibly the best and simplest explanation of when information is most effective.