Comments on: Bad Bar Chart Practices, or Send in the Clowns

By: We cant Cure Cancer, But we can Cure this Medicare Chart [Chart Busters] | Pointy Haired Dilbert: Charting & Excel Tips - Chandoo.org

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:01:26 +0000

[...] is worth a thousand words, or so they say. But is a Choropleth worth the many line charts and clowns that you could squeeze into the same valuable screen real estate? Let’s find out, by [...]

By: savithri.v

savithri.v — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:10:42 +0000

Hi Sir,
I tried doing a chart with dual category axis & broken value axis using similar data, like the one sent to you.
I need to break the Y axis as one of the series has large values dwarfing the rest.
As the sophisticated algebra that you have used in your ‘broken Y axis’ example was beyond my comprehension, I used a very rudimentary procedure for finding out X values for the cut off series.
I tested this by inflating some values here & there in the data – the cut off marker gets plotted on the required point in my chart.
But when I tried to apply the same primitive logic in your example, I get slight differences in the X vales. Most likely, I’ve messed up the concept.
Mailed you the file. It would be nice if this could also get into the queue seeking your attention.
savithri

By: savithri.v

savithri.v — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:25:42 +0000

I made column chart, bar charts overlapped / stacked with separation, dot plots, line etc. but still not able to figure out the one chart that would best represent 5 sets of data compared in 15 categories. I’ve sent you the file with the data. I am not jumping the queue & would also post this in your Chart Doctor. (Feel like copying your clown in the presentation if nothing else works..)

By: CW Campbell

CW Campbell — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:14:57 +0000

Thanks for this, Jon. I’m just switching into this field and have found your site very helpful.

By: Bridging Viewpoints » Bad Bar Charts

Bridging Viewpoints » Bad Bar Charts — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:41:27 +0000

[...] Peltier wrote this informative and amusing blog post on one such bad bar chart. Here is an image of that [...]

By: Aron Szucs

Aron Szucs — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:40:54 +0000

This is my first visit to your site. I found myself laughing hysterically at this post.

Excellent site overall. Many thanks for sharing.

Aron

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 02:37:06 +0000

Here's the chart Matt cited. The title is "Assets Under Management".

Because of the patterns, it's hard to see all the gaps between wedges. Also, I'm not sure how to interpret the different years on the labels, unless it designates the "class" of the assets. At least the percentages add to 100%. I think Professor Tufte might say, "The only thing worse than a pie chart, is one that looks like this."

By: Matt Healy

Matt Healy — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 23:22:15 +0000

Another fine example of chartjunk from SmartDraw is the following, which I’m sure Jon will love (and if somebody points it out to Tufte he’ll blow chunks):

http://www.smartdraw.com/examples/preview/index.aspx?example=Pie_Chart_-_Assets_Under_Management

By: dbb

dbb — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 10:04:24 +0000

nice work (again)

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:56:56 +0000

Rene - "[Pie charts] impose a discipline on the chart-maker to include the total of the entire series." One would think so, but did you see my post Pie Chart Plotting Deficiency earlier this week? If the chart maker wants to show how the bars in a bar chart compare to the total, then there is a certain obligation to indicate percentages (on a secondary axis or in data labels) or or to state the total (in a caption). In this case the intent of the chart was merely to show how many more people there are in China and India than in any other nations.