I like what Antony Unwin has to say here (start on page 5).
6 thoughts on “Getting into hot water over hot graphics”
Do you mean page 5?
Thanks; fixed.
Interesting article but it is a shame that Figure 2 is completely uninterpretable given a lack of legend and uninformative caption. Are we supposed to just appreciate its circularity?
The message I got from Figure 2 was that it looked cool but was useless as a statistical graphic. But maybe that wasn't Unwin's actual point.
The circularity of figure 2 is pointless, because January 2007 does not in fact come after December 2007. Also, why are the blue and magenta stripes the most visually overwhelming part of the whole graphic, when all they do is tell you about calendar months?
I think Figures 2 and 3 are horrible when considered by my usual standards for statistical graphics. However they are visually striking and in that way are similar to the notorious "5 best data visualization projects of the year".
Do you mean page 5?
Thanks; fixed.
Interesting article but it is a shame that Figure 2 is completely uninterpretable given a lack of legend and uninformative caption. Are we supposed to just appreciate its circularity?
The message I got from Figure 2 was that it looked cool but was useless as a statistical graphic. But maybe that wasn't Unwin's actual point.
The circularity of figure 2 is pointless, because January 2007 does not in fact come after December 2007. Also, why are the blue and magenta stripes the most visually overwhelming part of the whole graphic, when all they do is tell you about calendar months?
I think Figures 2 and 3 are horrible when considered by my usual standards for statistical graphics. However they are visually striking and in that way are similar to the notorious "5 best data visualization projects of the year".