Communicating with Numbers #1

It’s Hard to Compare Shapes.

Which piece of the pie is bigger – and by how much? It’s hard to say because the human eye finds it very difficult to judge how much bigger one shape is than another.

Pie charts and three-dimensional shapes may look attractive, but they won’t do a good job of presenting your data because the viewer won’t be able to tell how much bigger one quantity is than another.

On the other hand, a simple bar graph makes it easy for readers to compare one line length to the next.

See Also: Dynamic Tables and Graphs

Comments

Stephanie V said…
Oh dear. I'm challenged by graphs. I hope that you would advise that the actual words be included somewhere for those of us who take longer to process the visuals.
May 5, 2010 at 9:37 AM
Penny McKinlay said…
Graphs should only be used if they are easy to understand. It's important to have a clear title, a date, a source, and any other explanation that may be required. The focus should be on providing the reader with useful information - creating a pretty graphic is completely irrelevant. My handout on Dynamic Tables and Graphs provides additional, really helpful information.
May 5, 2010 at 9:45 AM
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