It's a simple formula: IF (temp > MAX_TEMP)...
My initial reaction to the O-Ring Damage graphs/plots was that they were created within a different context than convincing NASA officials to postpone the Challenger launch.
I'm a S/W Engineer, and in my field, I always had to communicate with clients with varying ranges of technical understanding. It is fundamentally understood that one must understand their target audience and present their information accordingly; we just want to get our point across.
The obstacles one might face when presenting/displaying information are: time, creativity, context, and target audience. For the NASA Engineers, the context was clear: proven how temperatures affect O-Ring resiliency. Target Audience: NASA officials/non-Engineers. Time: not much.
The essential problem with these graphs was not an issue of technical jargon or incomprehensive graphs - it was an issue of poor communication. The O-Ring Graphs were cluttered with unnecessary images and were not plotting the correct data against each other - i.e. they were out of context. I do not believe that the NASA Engineers created any kind of data plot to show the officials, but instead regurgitated different documents they had archived, hoping that the officials can extrapolate the information themselves, with the help of their side notes.