Archive for May, 2007

Why not Mosaic Displays!

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

Worse than radar charts? Mosaic displays!

Table mosaic displays - raw data

Data on hair and eye color of 592 students is transformed into this:

Mosaic display

The relative frequency is displayed as an area. However, the eye isn’t good in comparing areas of different sizes.

All three areas are of the same size: Comparison of areas

The labels are hard to read, too. You have to count. To display the frequency a simple graphic table is enough:

Graphic table as an alternative to the mosaic display

Leading data graphics

Tuesday, May 15th, 2007

For the time being, the best data graphics come from the American elite papers. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post provide clean graphs, free of chart junk and information dense.

The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal

Welt am Sonntag is close. Only the alternating background colors are nonsense. They change contrast and message. What is the message? Is it nicer in the light areas? What do I do wrong when I enter the dark areas?

Welt am Sonntag

Nonetheless: Thank you WAMS! The others make me cry anyway.