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Jesus, is that visualization supposed to help? I stared at it for minutes and I still don't really grok it. Seems like it is trying to channel a similar metho

Jesus, is that visualization supposed to help? I stared at it for minutes and I still don't really grok it. Seems like it is trying to channel a similar method as the Napolean March: http://bryanrulli.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/tufte_napolean_march.jpg http://bryanrulli.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/tufte_napolean... But failing completely at it. In any case, is this a common type of visualization now? Maybe with some experience it becomes easy to grok what is happening?

radicalbyte 14y ago
No, it's not common to see this kind of visualisation. Bad visualisations? Yeah, they're pretty common. The usual mistake is overuse of Pie Charts. I'd recommend the OP (and anyone else who has an interest in communication) to read: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142 http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Visual-Display-Quantitative-Info... Information Dashboard Design http://www.amazon.co.uk/Information-Dashboard-Design-Effective-Communication/dp/0596100167 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Information-Dashboard-Design-Effecti... Now You See http://www.amazon.co.uk/Now-You-See-Stephen-Few/dp/0970601980 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Now-You-See-Stephen-Few/dp/097060198...
- tgb 14y ago
  Ironically, the OP recommends that you read The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, as well. I suspect that the mediocre example (I thought it was reasonably readable and somewhat interesting) was there more as a demonstration of the fact that R makes non-scatter plots easily, too.
  - mrdub 14y ago
    It's from http://www.jasondavies.com/parallel-sets/ http://www.jasondavies.com/parallel-sets/ and is one of the example plots for http://d3js.org/ http://d3js.org/
    - weaksauce 14y ago
      I must say that the icicle plot of the same data is way more readable. The crisscrossing lines are all but useless to get a feel of the data. go to http://www.jasondavies.com/parallel-sets/ http://www.jasondavies.com/parallel-sets/ and click on icicle plot to see what is going on.
SiVal 14y ago
I eventually figured it out, but there was no AHA! about it. I had to slowly pick it apart every step of the way, like working through an obfuscated C contest entry.
1wheel 14y ago
I've seen a clearer version of the same chart; when it doesn't show children it is much easier to understand what is going on.
deleted 14y ago
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pseut 14y ago
A dot chart would have been substantially better. I haven't seen that sort of visualization before. It's probably a mistake to try to show the relative size of each group in the same picture as the absolute size.

radicalbyte 14y ago

No, it's not common to see this kind of visualisation. Bad visualisations? Yeah, they're pretty common. The usual mistake is overuse of Pie Charts. I'd recommend the OP (and anyone else who has an interest in communication) to read: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142 http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Visual-Display-Quantitative-Info... Information Dashboard Design http://www.amazon.co.uk/Information-Dashboard-Design-Effective-Communication/dp/0596100167 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Information-Dashboard-Design-Effecti... Now You See http://www.amazon.co.uk/Now-You-See-Stephen-Few/dp/0970601980 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Now-You-See-Stephen-Few/dp/097060198...

tgb 14y ago
Ironically, the OP recommends that you read The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, as well. I suspect that the mediocre example (I thought it was reasonably readable and somewhat interesting) was there more as a demonstration of the fact that R makes non-scatter plots easily, too.
- mrdub 14y ago
  It's from http://www.jasondavies.com/parallel-sets/ http://www.jasondavies.com/parallel-sets/ and is one of the example plots for http://d3js.org/ http://d3js.org/
  - weaksauce 14y ago
    I must say that the icicle plot of the same data is way more readable. The crisscrossing lines are all but useless to get a feel of the data. go to http://www.jasondavies.com/parallel-sets/ http://www.jasondavies.com/parallel-sets/ and click on icicle plot to see what is going on.

SiVal 14y ago

I eventually figured it out, but there was no AHA! about it. I had to slowly pick it apart every step of the way, like working through an obfuscated C contest entry.

1wheel 14y ago

I've seen a clearer version of the same chart; when it doesn't show children it is much easier to understand what is going on.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

pseut 14y ago

A dot chart would have been substantially better. I haven't seen that sort of visualization before. It's probably a mistake to try to show the relative size of each group in the same picture as the absolute size.