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by no-such-address 3110 days ago
Visualizing: You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means. VIS guy
5 comments

Please don't post unsubstantive dismissals to HN. If you know more, please teach us by adding relevant information. If you don't want to do that, that's fine, but then it's better not to post.

Either way, please drop the swipes, and for bonus points we can leave out the internet clichés as well.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I think it means communicating data visually, which this does. What do you think it means?
Maybe you thought it'd be an infographic? This is totally a valid visualization as far as I'm concerned. It packages and communicates data visually that would otherwise be difficult to see. It doesn't abstract up from the data with summary graphics, but it uses a time axis to give you a deeper understanding of the nature of the data. It even uses balloons, which I think may be the author suggesting a "bubble". So look, it even communicates a message.

[Disclaimer: not a VIS guy]

This is a textbook (dictionary) example of visualization.
Your criticisms of my comment are fair, but you are also defending an animation of hot air balloon that somehow describe attributes of cryptocurrency transactions.

There's nothing wrong about making visualizations that look interesting and appealing, but do the most salient features of this display actually encode the data? Or was it designed mostly to convey a subjective view about Bitcoin?

Didn't Tufte call designs like this building a "Duck"? https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=...