We have all seen more than our shares of charts and tables. Data in columns and rows. If we’re lucky, a trend chart. Numbers filling pages filling handouts filling binders.

That’s why it is always delightful to find a new way of presenting information, as Doug McCune has done with crime in San Francisco. He took real data, aggregated it geographically, and artistically rendered it as elevation. More crime mean higher elevation. You have to see the maps to understand their impact. Click here to see the hills and mountains of San Francisco created by larceny, narcotics, assault, vandalism, warrants, prostitution, vehicle theft, and robbery.

As McCune points out, the features are pretty consistent across all of the maps. It looks like the northeast center of the city easily has the highest crime rate across all types of crimes. The most dramatic map is the prostitution map with its twin peaks casting shadows over the city.

It made me think of how an elevation map could be used to show an organization’s data. For example, if you measure quality at different points in a process, you could map the process and use the quality measures to create elevation along the route. If you work for a utility, you could use outage data to create elevation maps that showed where most outages occur in the area you serve. Sure, you already have the data and everybody knows that bigger numbers mean more outages, but visualizing those outages can have a powerful impact.

Governments could use elevation maps to depict accidents in their cities or states. Publishers could use them to show where books are being sold. The Department of Agriculture could use them to show where certain crops are coming from.

Not every organization would benefit from elevation maps. I can’t think of how a fast food restaurant would use them, for example, or a school. But the elevation maps are just a reminder anyway that showing data visually helps the viewer think differently about what is being shown. If you’re looking for fresh perspectives and new insights, consider artistically rendering your data.

To read more about data and information, click on these articles:

• Make Better Decisions, Faster
• How to Develop a Balanced Scorecard
• Communicating Performance on Key Measures
• Get the Information You Need
• 10 Critical Questions: Data, Information, and Knowledge

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