3 ms·

Am I just stupid, or am I not the only one who finds graphs like the first one useless and impossible to read?

by docgnome 16y ago

jonursenbach 16y ago
You aren't alone.
- ramidarigaz 16y ago
  I dunno. The graphic seems pretty straight forward. The entire width of the band is the total number of calls received, and the categories of calls make up the components of the band. Wider band of color means more calls received. The x axis is time. Seems simple enough to me.
  - joemi 16y ago
    But what is it actually straight forward about? All that can be gleaned from this particular graph is that there are a lot of noise complaints at night, a lot of streetlight complaints around noon, and that there's a larger variety of complaints during the day. The rest is just pretty visual noise. Consider the humps and valleys that occur when following the sections for "consumer complaints"... The rising and falling of that line means absolutely nothing, yet it obscures the line's own thickening and thinning to the point where it's pretty useless. A simple line chart (while not as pretty) would be even easier to read and much more useful. You'd still see the major trends you see in this chart, but the rest of the information would be useful instead of just noise.
    - s-phi-nl 16y ago
      I think Tufte comments on this type of graph (or a similar type), but I don't have a copy of the book handy. Would anyone who does like to share what he says?
    - electromagnetic 16y ago
      I don't think the graph is supposed to be particularly useful to you, I think this graph is more useful to the actual city workers so they can focus on specific complaints at specific times. There's no point focusing on streetlight complaints at 6pm, and there's no point focusing on noise at 7am when the garbage trucks are going around. Deal with the right problems at the right time gets a much better response from your customers (IE the tax payers and voters). In general you want to deal with the vast majority of complaints. The rising and falling of the line is caused by something else becoming larger. You don't follow the line itself, but judge its thickness by placement on the X-axis.
LiveTheDream 16y ago
You aren't stupid, but probably haven't encountered a streamgraph[1] before. It's just a stacked area graph where X is time (it's even labeled at the top) and Y is frequency of calls (thickness, not from the origin). I think it's an excellent and informative graphic, personally. [1] http://www.leebyron.com/else/streamgraph/ http://www.leebyron.com/else/streamgraph/

Am I just stupid, or am I not the only one who finds graphs like the first one useless and impossible to read?

jonursenbach 16y ago

You aren't alone.

ramidarigaz 16y ago
I dunno. The graphic seems pretty straight forward. The entire width of the band is the total number of calls received, and the categories of calls make up the components of the band. Wider band of color means more calls received. The x axis is time. Seems simple enough to me.
- joemi 16y ago
  But what is it actually straight forward about? All that can be gleaned from this particular graph is that there are a lot of noise complaints at night, a lot of streetlight complaints around noon, and that there's a larger variety of complaints during the day. The rest is just pretty visual noise. Consider the humps and valleys that occur when following the sections for "consumer complaints"... The rising and falling of that line means absolutely nothing, yet it obscures the line's own thickening and thinning to the point where it's pretty useless. A simple line chart (while not as pretty) would be even easier to read and much more useful. You'd still see the major trends you see in this chart, but the rest of the information would be useful instead of just noise.
  - s-phi-nl 16y ago
    I think Tufte comments on this type of graph (or a similar type), but I don't have a copy of the book handy. Would anyone who does like to share what he says?
  - electromagnetic 16y ago
    I don't think the graph is supposed to be particularly useful to you, I think this graph is more useful to the actual city workers so they can focus on specific complaints at specific times. There's no point focusing on streetlight complaints at 6pm, and there's no point focusing on noise at 7am when the garbage trucks are going around. Deal with the right problems at the right time gets a much better response from your customers (IE the tax payers and voters). In general you want to deal with the vast majority of complaints. The rising and falling of the line is caused by something else becoming larger. You don't follow the line itself, but judge its thickness by placement on the X-axis.

LiveTheDream 16y ago

You aren't stupid, but probably haven't encountered a streamgraph[1] before. It's just a stacked area graph where X is time (it's even labeled at the top) and Y is frequency of calls (thickness, not from the origin). I think it's an excellent and informative graphic, personally. [1] http://www.leebyron.com/else/streamgraph/ http://www.leebyron.com/else/streamgraph/