When 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.
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