1. Plotting Likert and Other Rating Scales
PRESENTED BY
Naomi B. Robbins
NJTUG | Hoboken | January 31, 2012 | Copyright © 2012 Naomi B. Robbins
©2011 Tableau Software Inc. All rights reserved.

2. ©2011 Tableau Software Inc. All rights reserved.
What are rating scales?
Psychometric scales commonly used in questionnaires
Likert
Strongly disagree, disagree, no opinion, agree, strongly agree
Semantic differential scales
Other bipolar adjectives; e.g., not important to very important,
evil to good.
©2011 Tableau Software Inc. All rights reserved.
©2011 Tableau Software Inc. All rights reserved.

3. Questions we asked How are rating scales plotted now?
Which type of graph do we like best?
Can we plot it using Tableau Software?
©2011 Tableau Software Inc. All rights reserved.

4. How are rating scales plotted now?
Tables
Grouped bar chart
Divided bars
Multiple pie charts
Waffle charts
Ribbon charts
Radar Plots
Showing average for each question
Diverging stacked bars

5. Table: Oct Amstat News .

6. Figure: Oct. 2005 Amstat News

7. Grouped bar

8. Mean for each category

9. Divided bar

10. Multiple pies

11. Multiple pies by count

12. Waffle chart
Academic
Business/ Industry
Government

13. Source of waffle chart

14. Ribbon from Excel

15. Ribbon chart

16. Radar

17. Diverging stacked bar chart

18. Features of diverging stacked bar charts
Centered at 0, with reference line at 0
Reference line behind bars so that “no opinions” not split
Symmetric intensity of colors in each direction
Colors that are accessible to those with color vision deficiencies
Sort by right-hand side
Parallel one-dimensional bars for each question or group
©2011 Tableau Software Inc. All rights reserved.
©2011 Tableau Software Inc. All rights reserved.

19. Adding other categories

20. ©2011 Tableau Software Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact info:
Naomi B. Robbins
(973)
Author: Creating More Effective Graphs
(Wiley 2005)
©2011 Tableau Software Inc. All rights reserved.
©2011 Tableau Software Inc. All rights reserved.

21. ©2011 Tableau Software Inc. All rights reserved.
I claim that
communicates more clearly and accurately than do , , , , , or . ,
©2011 Tableau Software Inc. All rights reserved.
©2011 Tableau Software Inc. All rights reserved.