Misleading 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 ArticleWhat's Wrong with this Graph?
This is the first post in a new blog designed to help you recognize misleading and deceptive graphs as well as become familiar with some common graphical mistakes. How many problems can you identify...
View ArticlePart 2 of What's Wrong with this Graph: Redesign of the Facebook Valuation Graph
In my last post I criticized a figure showing Facebook valuations over time. Although I received a number of comments, they were by email and tweets rather than the comment section of this blog....
View ArticleThinking Outside the Chart Menu
Software packages for charting data often offer menus; i.e., lists of charts that are available. Excel offers a menu; Tableau has Show Me! Elementary statistics and graphing books offer recipes; i.e.,...
View ArticleWhat's Wrong with this Table?
In previous posts, we’ve seen that many graphs do not display data as clearly and accurately as they could. The same is also true for tables. I recently saw a table listing the number of terror attacks...
View ArticleProofreading Tip: Don't Forget the Graph Labels!
Source: NJ Biz October 31, 2011 This figure appears in the October 31, 2011 edition of NJBiz. I noticed immediately that while the pink line ends in September, the blue line labeled "2011" has data for...
View ArticleAlternative to Charles Blow's Figure in "Newt's War on Poor Children"
Richard Heiberger and I present an alternative to the figure in “Newt’s War on Children,” a NYT op-ed by Charles Blow. The redesigned figures both completely support and make a stronger presentation...
View ArticleKids and Technology
We share some cute remarks young children made about technology and encourage these children to start visualizing data at an early age.
View ArticleA Histogram is NOT a Bar Chart
Although there are similarities in their appearance, histograms and bar charts are not the same. This post explains some of their differences and why there should not be spaces between the bars of a...
View ArticleComparing Distributions with Box Plots
Box plots, also called box and whisker plots, are more useful than histograms for comparing distributions. They show more information about the data than do bar charts of a summary statistic such as...
View ArticleWhen Should I Use Logarithmic Scales in My Charts and Graphs?
This post offers reasons for using logarithmic scales, also called log scales, on charts and graphs. It explains when logarithmic graphs with base 2 are preferred to logarithmic graphs with base 10. It...
View ArticleHow Should I Label Log Scales in Charts and Graphs?
There is disagreement on the proper way to label logarithmic scales in charts and graphs, especially when the base is not 10. This post shows several alternative ways of labeling log scales, giving the...
View ArticleTips for WordPress Bloggers: Preview, Quotation Marks, Code, and Subscripts...
Problems I ran into when starting to blog are discussed to save other new bloggers time. They include previewing posts, using simple rather than fancy quotation marks, inserting code in Courier font,...
View ArticleEgyptian Deadly Soccer Match: Confusing Units in Presenting Data
Labels in graphs often are repetitive; for example, an axis label may say percent and every tick mark and data label also say percent. This can cause confusion when the label is quantitative. Readers...
View ArticleMisleading Graphs: Figures Not Drawn to Scale
The representation of numbers in graphs should be proportional to the numbers themselves. Otherwise, they mislead or deceive. Examples of misleading graphs not drawn to scale and a figure with unevenly...
View ArticleAre Grid Lines Useful or Chartjunk?
Many books and articles I’ve seen on drawing effective graphs say not to use grid lines. Why? Because they say Edward Tufte said so. In this post we’ll look at the exact words of Edward Tufte and see...
View ArticleMisleading Graphs: Displaying a Change in One Variable Using Area or Volume
Changes in a single variable can be shown accurately by one-dimensional elements such as by position along an axis or by lines. Using area or volume at best confuses the reader since it is not clear...
View ArticlePlotting Differences: Don't Make Your Readers Do the Math
The annual murder counts in New York State and New York City appear in Figure 1. Suppose we are interested in the number of murders in New York State but outside of New York City. We could find that...
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...
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