Graphs on Multiple Slides
PowerPoint presentations with multiple sequential graphs, such as monthly results each on a separate slide, tax viewers' short-term memory, preventing them from absorbing the results. Beth Lisberg...
View ArticleAnother Misleading Graph of Romney's Tax Plan
Fox News published another misleading graph of Romney's tax plan.
View ArticleSome Useful Statistical Blogs
A group of statistical bloggers had lunch together at the Joint Statistical Meetings in San Diego. I’ll post links to their blogs for those of you interested in resources in statistics. The luncheon...
View ArticleMust Zero Be Included on Scales of Graphs? Another Look at Fox News' Graph...
Many graph experts disagree with Darryl Huff’s argument that the scales of all graphs must begin at zero. I discuss why the rule for bar graphs may differ from that for line graphs.
View ArticleBill Clinton's Speech in Misleading Graphs
Misleading graphs detract from Sarah Kliff's otherwise interesting post on the length of President Bill Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention.
View ArticleHow To Exaggerate Trends in Graphs
Literature about graphs includes many discussions about whether zero needs to be included on all scales. We demonstrate that a graph designer can mislead just as much by changing the aspect ratio. The...
View ArticleMisleading Groups of Charts
When drawing charts and graphs it is important that the individual charts be clear, concise, and easy to understand. In addition, we must consider consistency in groups of charts to make sure that we...
View ArticleChoosing Colors for Graphs that are Accessible to Most Viewers
Red and green do cause problems for those with some forms of color vision deficiencies, especially if they have similar levels of lightness and saturation. We see that orange and green are also...
View ArticleWhen Swapping Axes Improves Graph Design
Good Magazine along with Other Means published an interactive graphic discussing if America can be energy independent. A static view of it appears in Figure 1. Immediately you'll notice that the labels...
View ArticleTwo Opinions on the Usefulness of Pictographs
This post presents two opposing views on the usefulness of pictograms and asks you to comment with your opinion.
View ArticleConflicting Polls in a Flawed Graph
How many problems do you see in this graph of conflicting poll results?
View ArticleNYC Data Week
This week is NYC Data Week, co-produced by the City of New York's Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications (DoITT) and O'Reilly Media's Strata + Hadoop World Conference. Multiple...
View ArticleAlways Count Your Pills
Your pharmacy may not give you the number of pills your doctor prescribed. Always count your pills.
View ArticlePublic Speaking Mistakes to Avoid
While not a public speaking professional, I know how I react as a member of the audience. This post lists some of my pet peeves at conferences.
View ArticleGraph Makeover Contest
In this post I am going to present a graph and a table and ask you, the reader, to present the alternatives. You can makeover just one or both. It’s up to you.
View ArticleLooking Back on My First Year of Blogging
Today's post summarizes my first year of blogging and places the posts into categories.
View ArticleAlternatives to the Pie/Donut Chart in the Graph Makeover Contest
The Graph Makeover Contest makes it clear that there are multiple ways to plot a data set with no one way being best. This post shows alternatives to a pair of donut charts.
View ArticleVisualizing the Table of the Graph Makeover Contest
Eight ways to visualize a table of consumer expenditures are shown out of 28 entries submitted. No one way is best as different presentations emphasize different comparisons and different aspects of...
View ArticleLine Charts Are Not Always the Best Way to Show Time Series
We often hear that we should use line plots for trends over time. This post shows an example where a line (or area) chart doesn't work and once again suggests thinking about your data and the story...
View ArticleDeceptive Donut Chart
A deceptive donut chart is shown; the values are not drawn to scale.
View ArticleParallel Coordinate Plots: Another Alternative for the Consumer's...
Alfred Inselberg provided parallel coordinates plots as alternatives to the table of the expenditures data in the Graph Makeover Contest.
View ArticleBefore and After Expenditures Figures from Carlos Ortega
Carlos Ortega redrew his entry to the Graph Makeover Contest to make use of some of the reviewers’ comments. Both versions are shown in this post.
View ArticleAn Example Where Circles are Useful in Graphs
Circles are an effective way to show distances from a point making this application an exception to my usual criticism of circles and bubbles in graphs.
View ArticleBefore and After Expenditures Figures from Kristian Pedersen
Kristian Pedersen redrew his entry to the Graph Makeover Contest using some of the reviewers’ comments. Both versions are shown in this post.
View ArticleMisleading Newspaper Graph
Newspapers are expected to check facts and report accurately. Why, then, should they not also be expected to check their charts and graphs and ensure that they are accurate. Figure 1 appears on page 13...
View ArticleBefore and After Expenditures Figures from Ramon Martinez
Ramon Martinez redrew his entry to the Graph Makeover Contest to make use of some of the reviewers’ comments. Both versions are shown in this post.
View ArticleHow to Position Y-Axis Labels in Graphs
We discuss a comment on a previous post stating that the text of labels on the vertical axis of graphs must be horizontal by discussing the pros and cons of four possible positions for these labels.
View ArticleConsider Readers with Color Vision Deficiencies
A very informative map for those with normal color vision is difficult to interpret for those with color vision deficiencies. It's easy to use a color vision simulator to prevent this problem.
View ArticleMisleading Healthcare Graph
An example from healthcare is used to show that a single graph can be acceptable by itself but confusing or even misleading when placed in a group of graphs.
View ArticleColor Problems With Figures From The Jerusalem Post
Multiple pie charts are not the only problem with figures from the Jerusalem Post. Two mistakes with using color are pointed out.
View ArticleFinding Examples of Misleading and Deceptive Graphs
Searching for the terms examples of misleading graphs or deceptive graphs is rarely the best way to find examples. A better way is to become familiar with graphical problems that cause a figure to...
View ArticleMisleading Graphs: Departing from Convention
Departing from conventions on designing and reading graphs can cause your graphs to mislead. One convention is that values increase from left to right. If you must depart from this convention,...
View ArticleVisualizing Stop-and-Frisk and Murder Rates in New York City
Double panel, dual axis and indexed graphs were drawn to examine the relationship of NYC Police Department stop and frisks to the number of murders in NYC. All of the graphs clearly show that the...
View ArticleGelman's Click-through Compromise for Statistical Graphics and Data Art
Artists and statisticians have different goals in creating visualizations. Andrew Gelman said that artists want visualizations to be creative, grabby and innovative while these characteristics are not...
View ArticleMisleading Pie Chart from the IRS
Since it is tax day I chose a chart from the IRS for my comments today. Figure 1 shows the chart with the labels cropped out. The wedges of a pie chart add to 100%. Please estimate the percentage of...
View ArticleTeaching Graphs to Preschoolers
Preschool children create a bar graph and talk about square numbers to the surprise of their parents.
View ArticleGraph Redesign: Male and Female Publishing Disparities
Pie charts are rarely the best way to show data and multiple pie charts are even worse. A back-to-back bar chart presents the percentage of male and female reviewers in literary magazines collected by...
View ArticleAnother Misleading Graph Not Drawn to Scale
Graphs that are not drawn to scale mislead the reader. This post shows another example of a graph where the visual representation of the numbers is not proportional to the numbers themselves.
View ArticleBad Graph Contest: What Software Produces the Worst Graph?
A staggering number of really bad graphs are drawn daily. Some are the fault of the designers but often the software used to produce the graph is to blame. Use the comment area or email me at naomi at...
View ArticleLinked Micromaps for Geographically Referenced Data
Linked micromaps are collections of small maps linked to corresponding plots. They were developed by Dan Carr and are an extremely useful tool that belongs in the toolbox of anyone who plots...
View ArticleData Visualizations Skills Needed at PDF:Applied Hackathon
A hackathon, PDF:Applied, will take place in NYC on June 9-10 preceding the Personal Democracy Forum (PDF) conference. Those with data visualization skills are encouraged to participate.
View ArticleWinner of the Bad Graph Contest Announced
The finalists and the winner of the bad graph contest are announced. All of the entries had serious problems so choosing a winner was difficult.
View ArticleTrellis Plot Alternative to Three-Dimensional Bar Charts
Graph designers often try to put too much information in one plot resulting in confusing plots that are difficult to read. Trellis plots often provide the solution to displaying the data clearly.
View ArticleConflicting Advice on Data Visualization
Writers offer conflicting advice on data visualization in blogs and books. I present an example where an alternative figure has at least as many problems as the figure being criticized.
View ArticleThinking Outside the Chart Menu: Part 2
One of my earliest posts was Thinking Outside the Chart Menu. In it I mentioned that while menus and chart-choosers might be very useful to novices at graphing data, there were three things worth...
View ArticleArrow Charts and Other Alternatives to Multiple Pie Charts
Arrow charts and slope charts are alternatives to multiple pie charts when the data consist of the values or the percentage breakdown of several categories for two time periods.
View ArticleShould I Shade Alternate Rows in My Tables?
This post cautions about blindly applying style guides without thinking. The preferred way to delineate rows or columns in tables is with white space. However, there may be times when the available...
View ArticleConsider Your Message When Choosing What Chart to Use
Different chart types emphasize different aspects of the data. Three figures show the same data but have different messages. Think about the story you want to tell before picking a chart type.
View ArticleComments on Ezra Klein's "Romney's and Obama's tax plans, in one chart"
I present an alternative to Ezra Klein’s chart showing Romney’s and Obama’s tax plans in one chart so that equal intervals on the axis represent equal amounts.
View ArticleIs the Word "Data" Singular or Plural?
Do you say “data is” or “data are”? Let’s see what a grammar expert says about this issue.
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