3 ms·
A point I have not seen mentioned is that Excel encourages bad practices for data visualization. No other statistics or data analysis software I am aware of giv
by ramblenode 10y ago
A point I have not seen mentioned is that Excel encourages bad practices for data visualization. No other statistics or data analysis software I am aware of gives you the option of 3D-ifying a 2D plot. This adds negative value to the plot for anyone who is actually interested in data over eye candy. Simple example is a pie chart. Give it depth and it becomes much more difficult to reason about, and one's reasoning could easily change if the chart was rotated.
- learningman 10y agoAgreed for the most part, although there are rare valid uses for 3d graphs. I think most contemporary data vis people would say that Excel makes it possible to make pie charts at all means it may encourage bad practices.
- infinite8s 10y agoWhat are those rare valid uses for 3D graphs?
- learningman 10y agoI can think of one-- we had a 96-element datatable (12x8) and limited space in our biochemical journal article. We were looking to graphically show differences in orders of magnitude to help explain the assay. A 3d column chart fit the bill because we could show lots of data in a small space, and readers could quickly see the range of values.
- ramblenode 10y agoI was hesitant about the pie chart example but it was the simplest I could think of. I'm glad someone brought this up. ;)