Human beings aren’t capable of understanding the raw information in a database in any complete way.
- Our minds have a tendency to quickly assign meaning as we perceive the information, so columns of numbers will represent as a feeling instead of being held as separate values.
- Even when they’re low-enough on the autism spectrum, a database has to be comparatively smaller for them to understand the information.
- The data may evoke a story as a collective set of information that would never be expressed on an element-by-element basis.
Therefore, we must use more articulate ways to express this information.
The easiest way to express data is through a visualization, mostly because our eyes give more absolute information to our brains than any of our other senses. It’s possible to express data as a sound (e.g., notifications), but that doesn’t mean it’s effective in conveying anything precise.
Reports
The simplest way to express data is through a report. This often requires numerical data (since it’ll often be summarized via calculation), but it can also be numerically calculated by counting instances of non-numerical information directly.
For any report to be effective, it needs to have several qualities:
- Actionable – It must serve to advance or promote some sort of purpose.
- Accessible – It must be easy to understand.
- Auditable – The information must be easily reproducible for someone else to verify.
To that end, good reports intentionally omit useless information and provide the supporting data as an accompaniment. The report should also draw directly from the data, and not use an intermediate system that could generate error or inaccuracy.