Comments on: The Purpose of Charting

By: Weekly Excel Links - Moved to Seattle Edition | Pointy Haired Dilbert - Chandoo.org

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:30:49 +0000

[...] friend Jon @ PTSBlog asks the critical question “what is the purpose of charting?” and answers it well with several examples. Of course we all think that the purpose of charts [...]

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:38:58 +0000

Would the crumbs be the “gray” area that isn’t labeled in the legend? I do love me some lemon pie though. My yellow slice would be much smaller…

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:00:57 +0000

I think a pie shouldn't contain more than two segments. Two sections tell as much of a story as a pie can handle, and this is as much pie as I can handle:

(thanks Logic Nest.)

By: Sandi Mays

Sandi Mays — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:35:57 +0000

I agree with your comment that Pie Charts generally suck. The qualifier is – they suck when you are trying to compare more than 4 pieces of data.

I like the column chart. I am stuck in a rut, where I always use Pareto bar/line combo charts to visually depict the data.

By: Sad but true « Open Analysis

Sad but true « Open Analysis — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:50:05 +0000

[...] info By jmay Categories: visualization Jon Peltier discusses the purpose of charting, with a bad pie chart as the exhibit on [...]

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:16:38 +0000

Robert -

I agree. By the same token, how often is objective #1 realized?

By: Robert Kosara

Robert Kosara — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:55:45 +0000

While I generally agree with you cynical list of reasons, I wonder about number 4: “Hide the fact that the presenter doesn’t know what’s going on.” I find that a bad or overcomplicated chart makes me ask a lot more questions than if somebody just talks over something s/he doesn’t understand. Looking at the chart, I try to figure out what it’s supposed to tell me, and if I can’t, I keep asking. So this strategy might actually backfire.