Bella consults

Apropos of resolution: General Electric has got a web page with health data. You can play with the data. 300 stickmen symbolize America. They are in every picture.

Depending on “Diseases & Conditions” and “Risk Factors” they stand in different formations. Well, sometimes they just disappear. Here 120 stickmen have left (or 40%).

For a stroke it looks like this. The thin ones on the left and the fat ones on the right.

Maximum differentiation is 0.33 % (1/300) if 300 stickmen symbolize America as a whole. Within the segments differentiation drops. For the thin ones it is 4.8 % (1/21). But now listen: 1 % of the thin ones have a stroke. That’s one-fifth stickman (1 % of 21). But GE doesn’t paint this. Underneath the picture: The more fat, the more stroke. I can’t see that either. Everything is 2 %. Except the thin ones (1%).

Play with it yourself. I believe: Painting absolute frequencies while talking about percentages goes wrong.

I don’t care about all that: I am a Labrador. I wouldn’t mind being fat.

I’m in France. The water bill has a chart. The chart is all right. Consumption is displayed compared to the years before. The EU wants it that way since May 2008 (Directive 2006/32/EG, PDF). Already in 2006 the EU said: The energy companies have to bill in an “informative way”. The real prices have to be displayed. And the real energy consumption. Also “Comparisons of the final customer’s current energy consumption with consumption for the same period in the previous year, preferably in graphic form” are needed.

Source: mine

So what’s the conclusion for a European dog?

1. If you like your customers you give them the possibility to compare by themselves. Before the EU tells you to do so. Customers like that. Even when they recognize that they have consumed more.
2. In times of crisis the government feels strong. It will dictate many regulations: who shows whom what to do and how to do it. I still don’t believe the state is a better manager. Nor that the state is a good graphic designer. So, a smart dog takes matters into her own hands.