Feedback & Testimonials

This presentation was probably one of my favorite talks of the conference.

“The second tutorial session in the visualization track was a presentation by Naomi Robbins, author of Creating More Effective Graphs, entitled “Communicating Data Clearly.” This presentation was probably one of my favorite talks of the conference, because it was so full of good information and insight, and it was presented in a clear, straightforward, professional manner. Whereas many other presenters got caught up in trying to polish their style and resorted to name-dropping to enhance the prestige of their material, Naomi spent every minute of her 3+ hours giving her audience good, actionable information about data visualization. In fact, throughout the rest of the conference, I found myself playing a fun game of “What would Naomi dislike about this plot?” every time someone popped up a graph. That’s when you know you’ve gained a skill.”

"Great session. Must see for anybody looking for a clear result-related view of data. It changed how I view graphs."

"Watching Naomi transform cluttered graphics into clean, illuminating charts was inspiring."

"A ray of precise light in the flash and shadows."

"Very useful and relevant to what I currently do; loved emphasis on clarity."

"Everyone in research or data analysis must take this class."

"Exceptional presentation which condenses a lot of information into a short amount of time - kind of like a graph!"

"Ms. Robbins combines experience with knowledge and both with good training presentation style - a very good combination - very effective."

I came away from this with rampant intent to bring more clarity to our presentations.

“I participated in an insightful and useful course on data visualization by Naomi B. Robbins, PhD. Taking a page from graphing guru Edward Tufte, and perhaps the lesser-known William Cleveland, Robbins put her own spin on graphical presentation of data. Naomi walked us through examples of ‘bad’ charts with a special emphasis on 3-D bar and pie charts. One of my favorite quotes from Robbins came at this point – ‘In 2010, no one’s impressed that you can create a 3-D graphic.’ She then explained how using knowledge on human perception can help us create better graphs and then showed us examples of ‘good’ charts. However, she was quick to mention that you must keep your audience in mind when creating presentations. While log scales and a scatterplot matrix might be everyday to some audiences, it might confuse others. I came away from this with rampant intent to bring more clarity to our presentations – but still keeping the Sentient spin. I love that I could immediately implement some of Naomi’s techniques in Sentient’s presentations.”