Wednesday

Improving data displays

I've just come across a website, Junk Charts, that illustrates and identifies some of the many problems you can stumble across illustrating data using charts. It's a very useful resource, as the author Kaiser Fung always explains what is wrong with each chart and illustrates how to do it better. Take a look at his post on the USDA's pie chart explaining healthy diets, here, for example.

And here's a screenshot of another, one where Fung argues that pie charts should be abolished.

And a final example, in which Fung illustrates exactly whose taxes would be lower under the 9-9-9 proposal (hint: it's not who you might think).

Altogether, an entertaining and instructive site.

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