Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Comparing Comparisons
Before blindly accepting any recommendation, let's consider all the different ways we could
show the comparison of refuse collected in the boroughs.
Figure 3-3
shows 11 different op-
tions (we'll consider maps in
Chapter 10
).
Figure 3-3. Eleven ways to show a simple quantitative (noncounting noun) comparison
All 11 chart types were created by Ctrl-selecting both
Borough
and
RefuseTonsCollected
,
selecting a view from the Show Me panel, and sorting in descending order (except the vertic-
al bars and the word cloud, which were made from slight modifications to the horizontal bars
and packed bubbles charts, respectively). No additional chart components were added, such
as labels. The defaults were accepted.
Which view gives the best sense of the relative amounts collected? Most likely you'd agree
that it's the horizontal bar chart (chart 1). Its advantage over the vertical bar chart (chart 2) is
that the bar labels are easier to read. Both make use of length to encode the amounts. As it
turns out, we're pretty good at comparing lengths.
