Comments on: Close Races

By: alderaic

alderaic — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:19:41 +0000

to test my charts, I use first my VP (planning etc…) so if he doesnt get it I know no one will, then I use an administrative assistant, if she gets it, everyone will, then I use another random person.

and it works fairly well, when I started in the company I am working for two years ago, they were not using any charts, just printing huge reports with so many columns of numbers that they would spend the whole monday analyzing the previous week, and another one or two days discussing it. Now they are using a lot more charts and do spend at best the whole monday analyzing and discussing the data (I still hope for quick monday morning but it is already a lot better than it was!)

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:56:13 +0000

If Andreas used the trick to display only positive numbers on the axis of his chart, it would look fine. Andreas, if you’re following, use a custom number format like this:
0;0;0;@

Tornado charts are harder to read than the reader thinks. It’s difficult to compare actual values on either side of the center line. But you do get a good view of the shapes of the distributions.

The lines in the dot plot are helpful to keep track of which series goes where, that is, to see the shape of the distribution. It would have been better to use lighter colors for the lines, so they detracted less from the markers which show the real data in the chart.

By: Colin Banfield

Colin Banfield — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:39:53 +0000

Jon, I’ve never particularly liked Tonado charts because it’s harder to compare differences among multiple series. However, it does allow you to see differences between values within a single series AND make comparisons between two different series, especially when the differences are not close. Intonaco’s chart is a good solution, although it appears that the difference is Obama minus Clinton and not the other way around. The negative values on the chart is also a problem. How can Clinton lead by a negative percentage?

Note that the dot plot, as shown, is misleading because it draws lines between points having no relationship. I find myself comparing lines instead of individual points, which is what the dot plot is intended to do.

By: intonaco » Blog Archive » Many ways to show a simple chart

intonaco » Blog Archive » Many ways to show a simple chart — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:38:53 +0000

[...] Saw this on the PTS blog [...]

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:09:38 +0000

Good approach. Who do you use to beta test your charts? Co-workers, family members?

By: alderaic

alderaic — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:57:33 +0000

I agree that they somtimes do have very nices charts. the problem is that the reader needs to understand the chart and they definitely got off track on this one.

Anyway now when I design new charts I get three different person to look at it and tell me what they can get from the chart within 30 seconds… if they dont get anything or the wrong conclusion then the chart is incorrect and people wont look at it.

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:16:29 +0000

@alderaic: I agree that this NYT chart is not easy to extract precise information from. I think the Times graphics team should be credited with trying lots of visualization approaches, some of which (like this one) don’t work too well, but some are very effective.

By: alderaic

alderaic — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:14:34 +0000

any chart would have been better than the one they do have on the NYT.

It would take the average reader 3 minutes at least to understand how to read the chart, and then draw some conclusions about the numbers (and even then the numbers would not be precise)

I dont know if it was designed to be compact but it sure wasnt designed to be understandable by 99% of the readers