Information Dashboard Nirvana

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit the New York Stock Exchange’s trading floor (for the second time). While it’s a much quieter place now, given the amount of electronic trading that goes on now, it’s still an amazingly interesting place to visit.

The floor is divided into small islands, each owned by a particular firm or specialist. In and around each island, numerous flat-panels keep track of stocks, using various kinds of proprietary information dashboards. If you like data visualization, you owe it to yourself to visit the NYSE floor.

It’s great to see many of the principles of correct information display being put to profitable use (though I also saw a great many ugly dashboards in place).

Overall, a great learning experience. Thanks to my friend Dave for making it possible, again.

Technorati Tags: Data Analysis, Edward Tufte, Multidimensional Graphs, Patterns, Visualization