What’s the problem? Goodson

What’s the problem? Useless Information – Don’t show decimals if they are not needed Poor Alignment – Make sure alignment makes sense Don’t center numbers, always right justify – try to align decimal points Consider the appropriate placement of row titles Headers are left justified – align with the numbers? Difficult to Read – Use commas used when the number exceeds a thousand Label

Better Still needs labels

What’s the problem?

Remove any visual clutter Data Ink is the ink on a graph that represents data. Good graphical representations maximize data-ink and erase as much non-data-ink as possible.  (Tufte) 1. Above all else show data. 2. Maximize the data-ink ratio. 3. Erase non-data-ink. 4. Erase redundant data-ink. 5. Revise and edit

Better

What’s the problem?

What’s wrong with this picture? Clutter detracts from the message Check the title and axis labels. What information does the graph provide?

What’s the problem ?

Simple best to accurately represent the data. There is no scale on the vertical axis, Because of the perspective it looks as though the sales for 1995 were far greater than those for any other year. In fact they were identical to those for 1997. It is much better to draw a 2D bar chart.

What’s the problem? . The pie chart shows United States population by state.

It is difficult to compare many slices in a pie chart It is difficult to compare many slices in a pie chart. Try alternative charts to convey your message, most often bar or column charts will be a much better alternative.  Too many slices- bad job in communicating the data. Table is probably best for this data Often - pie charts do not work well - even when displaying a few categories. Sometimes all slices look similar and one cannot  distinguish and compare the differences between them.

Check the Scale Begin the Vertical Axis at 0 ()

Begin the Vertical Axis at 0 It starts at 34 and there is no 0 point It looks as if it will be about 5 times as much in 2013 as is now Can you see other problems?

Begin the Vertical Axis at 0 Use the full axis for bar charts - draw inaccurate conclusions when bars are truncated.

Same graph w Accurate Scale Begins at 0 /Eliminates clutter With an accurate scale – it is about 5 pts higher – about 10% higher

Chart junk