148Apps recently treated us to a fancy pie chart in Apple iTunes App Store Metrics, Statistics and Numbers for iPhone Apps which demonstrated how easy it is, if you’re not satisfies with how much a 3D pie chart can distort data, to add extra distortion. If ever there was a job for Chart Busters, this [...]

Kaiser of JunkCharts has posted twice in a couple days about some charts that compare the effectiveness of different profile photo topics, in terms of attracting a potential date. The article that led to the controversy is The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures on a site called OK Cupid. Kaiser posted first in Light [...]

In Yikes! Another Pie Horror Show, I was showing problems with yet another pie chart. I know the criticism of pie charts getting tiresome, but I wanted to respond to a comment by Jeff Weir:
Q: What’s worse than comparing categories within a pie chart?
A: Comparing categories between 2 pie charts.
I will use an article [...]

My friend Debra Dalgleish notified me the other day that it was National Pie Day.

I missed National Pie Day, but while reading The Real Reason Outsourcing Continues To Fail, I encountered a pie chart that gave me indigestion. It purports to show problems with inter-cultural relationships that lead to outsourcing failures.

My friend and colleague John Walkenbach pointed me to a post from National Geographic called The Cost of Care, which compared health care spending with life expectancy for a number of countries. John asked how I would display this data.
The article shows a line chart with a line connecting a country’s health care spending on [...]

I often read the Chart of the Day feature on the Silicon Alley Insider. It’s kind of a pop look at something relevant to the technology industry. The charts are a bit more cerebral and way less chart junkie than those in USA Today, and I like to just have a peek to make sure [...]

The Marketing Charts blog compared Google to the rest of the world in Online Search Share, September 2009 & October 2009. The “guidelines” were followed: for parts of a whole, use a pie chart. And for comparison, why not two pies side by side?

Well, as Edward Tufte once said, “The only thing worse than a [...]

In this edition of Chart Busters, I’ve taken on a charting tutorial on the Microsoft web site. I know they are trying to help their customers make better use of their software, and some of the Microsoft tutorials are really pretty good. They have some helpful pages on using pivot tables, for example. But this [...]

Dustin Smith’s World Opinions on Climate Change article in Chart Porn blog pointed me to an attractive but ultimately ineffective graphic. The road to Copenhagen Summit on Whatype blog presents results of a 2007 World Public Opinion survey of worldwide public sentiment over global warming-related issues. The graphic is reproduced in small size below; click [...]

A Bar-of-Pie Chart. And a Pie-of-Pie Chart may be even worse. Let the Chart Busters explain.
Last week, Excel guru John Walkenbach conducted a poll on his wildly popular J-Walk Blog asking people to Post Your Pet. The poll results were tabulated in Tabulating The Pets.
I know John’s an expert and all, and he [...]