What it does
Part of a broader argument that graphical excellence is telling the truth about numbers with the least distortion. Its practical instructions are unusually concrete — remove the decoration, remove the redundancy, and above all do not let a chart imply a relationship the data does not contain.
- Reach for it when
- On any recurring report, where a small improvement is paid back every week.
- Where it stops
- Taken to its conclusion it produces charts that are austere to the point of being hard to read, and later research suggests some decoration aids memory. It is a corrective, not a rule.
Edward R. Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Graphics Press, 1983.
Why it sits at Reporting
The machinery that gets numbers from data to a reader: what is produced, in what form, how it reaches people, and whether any of it is actually read.
A model is only useful when you reach for it at the right moment. This one answers a question that arises here — so it is filed here, and nowhere else. These are the working areas it serves:
- What gets reportedInformation-management practice on report rationalisation, and the accretion problem in reporting estates.
- DashboardsWork on information design and visual encoding, and the distinction between exploratory and explanatory presentation.
- DistributionManagement-information practice on push against pull, and on timeliness as the binding constraint for decision support.
- Whether it is readUsage analytics applied to internal tooling, and the sunk-cost dynamic that keeps unused reports alive.
What it touches elsewhere
Nothing in a business is decided on its own. A conclusion reached with this model at Reporting lands in these other cores, whether or not anyone follows it there.
- Business CoreThe financial pack’s content is settled there; this object covers how it and everything else is produced and delivered.
- StakeholdersWhat external stakeholders receive is decided with them; the mechanics of producing it sit here.
- Data GovernanceConsistent definitions are what make self-service reporting safe rather than merely fast.
- Time CoreReporting rhythm has to match the decision rhythm, or the numbers arrive after the decision.
Filed at the same place
These answer questions that arise at Reporting too. Where they disagree with this one, the disagreement is the useful part.
- The pyramid principleState the answer first, then the reasons that support it, then the evidence underneath each reason.
Elsewhere in Data Core
These are other people’s models, named here so you can go to the source and use them properly. The Omnigoal is not affiliated with their authors and is not endorsed by them; nothing of theirs is reproduced here — no canvas, no diagram, no wording. Each is described in our own words, with the originator credited, because the framework is a place to put thinking, not a replacement for the people who did it. Model names and trademarks belong to their respective owners and are used here only to refer to the work itself.
All 125 models