Comments on: Ineffective Chart – Partition Chart

By: Chandoo

Chandoo — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:51:32 +0000

@Derek … that is an interesting insight… no wonder Pies have been berated by chart makers all over the world. Even though we may not be able to tell 170 from 230, our eyes are well equipped to tell a 900 from 450 which is pretty much the point of pie charts.

Again thanks for point to the paper :)

By: derek

derek — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:26:18 +0000

Actual work on this has been done by psychologists and other researchers, most famously by William Cleveland, and also earlier in the 1920s by W. C. Ells, and it turns out that the human eye can not make out angles with some accuracy. Stephen Few summarises the history in this paper (warning: PDF) People like pies, they like them a lot, but they're not being as informed and enlightened by them as they think they are. It's a triumph of prettiness over information.

By: Chandoo

Chandoo — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:40:23 +0000

@Jorge Camoes : you asked for it, a de-fragmented partition chart.. find it here : http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/07/10/partition-charts-visualization-fun/

This chart could be a straight forward replacement of pie charts (just 2-3-4 pies, not more) but, it breaks a pattern in that human eye can make out angles with some accuracy, but not blocks… but then this is supposed to be a different way of cutting the pie… so there you go.

By: Partition Charts - Continuation - [More visualization fun] | Pointy Haired Dilbert - Chandoo.org

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:36:02 +0000

[...] look at the partition charts suggested yesterday. You can read his review of the partition charts here. One of the commenters on his site said, Jon, the partition chart is not that bad. It just needs to [...]

By: Chandoo

Chandoo — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:12:02 +0000

@Jon … that is why I called it partition chart… :P because the partition is poorly fragmented… A very well critique there btw… :)

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:24:56 +0000

Jorge – That’s just what it looks like. Funny that I didn’t notice it.

By: Jorge Camoes

Jorge Camoes — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:22:05 +0000

Jon, the partition chart is not that bad. It just needs to be defragmented… :)