Featured Research Makes You Want To Dig Into the Data

This month's featured research "6 questions/2430 answers" is a set of survey results gathered and presented by the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis. The data, which represents 2,430 responses from 405 different artists, offers a unique perspective on questions about what it takes for artists to earn a living from their art.

Although the responses are incredibly interesting the main reason we chose to feature this report is because the design itself so successfully encourages exploration. Once you click into this report you actually want to browse the 2000 plus responses, not just skim a table and move on. You can read all the answers from one artist, all the responses to a particular question, or all the responses within a particular arts discipline. In addition, by providing us with the raw data, the actual answers from the survey, McKnight Foundation allows readers to draw some of their own conclusions rather than just reporting on their own analysis.

But here's the real kicker, this report was put together in 1999, almost 10 years ago! So why do we still see so little research presented in a way that makes you want to dig into the data and play around? We have some ideas but would love to hear what you think!