Comments on: Map Bubble Chart of Store Closings

By: Colin Banfield

Colin Banfield — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:29:43 +0000

Mapland has been around for some time. I haven’t tried it, but the Basic version is inexpensive. There’s also a demo version for download. Looks similar to the add-in that was once shipped with Excel.
http://www.softill.com/home.html

By: Jorge Camoes

Jorge Camoes — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:16:00 +0000

When I created the tutorial on how to create a map in Excel I though I would be easier to find maps in WMF format or an utility to convert ESRI or Mapinfo files. That’s not exactly the case.

If anyone wants my Excel file with the states map just send me a message. I’ve been planning to update that post and add the file, but something more urgent always get in the way.

By: Sjoerd Hoogwater

Sjoerd Hoogwater — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:52:49 +0000

Off-topic (couldn’t find a better place to let you know):

Here is another fun cartoon of chart-use:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/04/fancy-charts-graphs/

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:32:24 +0000

Jon – I think you’ve hit on the highlights and two very important points.
1) Column chart shows it much more accurately. I also really like the column chart with the different shades of color that you created.
2) The map shows the proximity of states and values to each other, which is not visible in the column chart.

I prefer both of your charts over the bubble chart on the map.

I’ve used Microsoft MapPoint, which is OK. I am a big fan of Tableau and have also used Many Eyes, which is free. Thanks for the link.

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:15:29 +0000

David -

Thanks for the note. Yes, the data I had was not complete. I know it represented about 20% of the Circuit City stores then in existance, but I don’t have the list of the stores that didn’t close until 2009, so I don’t know how the percentages were distributed. If I had the totals, I would have considered a stacked column (probably not 100% stacked) and stacked the still-open numbers on top of the closed numbers.

An interesting display might have a column chart with the numbers by state, with a map showing percentage by state.

Of course, the percentage that has closed in 2009 is 100%.

By: DMurphy

DMurphy — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:30:10 +0000

A very interesting blog, particularly in this financial crisis. However, I personally believe that the data itself does not give the full picture. Yes, we see that CA has lost 24 stores, but out of how many - 25? 50? 100? - and that MI has lost 7, but again, out of how many? Is there a geographical/demographic effect? Although I don't really like them too much, would a 100% Stacked Bar show a better picture, where the second series is the number of stores remaining "open". This would provide the reader with added info of whether these are just "cut-backs" or "total cessation". e.g. here's a quick'n'nasty example and I have to stress that I have randomly generated the total number of stores (so I apologise if it gives a totally incorrect image of Circuit City Stores see:

Being a non-US reader, my geography of the US States leaves something to be desired, so I do like the idea of plotting on a map - it gives the reader an insight to geographic spread of the stores. However, it again does not provide all the information I seek - including how many stores remain open. Can anyone do a relative "donut" rather than single circles - that would provide me with a chart of the geographic spread AND the total store info (open/closed)? My tuppence worth (or 2-cents' worth if you prefer).

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:20:13 +0000

Keith - I've never used one. There were a lot of things listed in a Google search. I was only looking for familiar names, and only Tableau caught my eye, so you're on your own. For what it's worth, Tableau looks like a great piece of software for analysis and visualization. It's not cheap, but it does a lot of things easily that are difficult in Excel. Tableau handles maps, but all of their posted examples show dots instead of filled regions. You should also look at Many Eyes, a online graphics service that includes maps with bubbles and with filled regions.

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:10:05 +0000

Nice to see a little retail-centric info design.

Jon, can you recommend 3rd party geographical analytics add-ons for Excel?

By: Liu 's chart blog

Liu 's chart blog — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:30:27 +0000

Jon－ Here is my solution to draw a bubble data map ,just like that in the biz weekly .

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:01:45 +0000

Both Tushar's Dashboard example – conditional colors of shapes and Jorge's How to create a thematic map in Excel rely on creation of individual map shapes and programmatically changing their colors based on data in a worksheet. The techniques work reasonably well, but they take a lot of prep. You need to draw the shapes, or hunt for them on the internet. You need to set up the data. You need to set up a range that is used to convert values into colors. And you need the code to change the colors of the shapes. Stefan - I'd like to see your approach too.