I have recently started using a Blackberry on Verizon wireless – I was amazed at the experience shock (kind of like culture shock) I had. You take an iPhone out of the pack and it just works, no user manual needed. You take the Blackberry out (and I think most of the blame lies with …
Category Archive
for: ‘Bad Examples’
The Bureau of Labor Statistics needs help
This administration is doing a good job of opening data up to the American public – from the creation of data.gov to the appointment of Edward Tufte to the Whitehouse advisory panel for improving the display of information on recovery.gov. Other government institutions though have a way to go. In this post I’m going to pick on the …
Wall Street Journal a way off New York Times standard..
It would seem that the Wall Street Journal has a way to go before approaching the data visualization excellence of the New York Times. The above data are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics American Time Use Survey. The pie chart is broken for the usual reasons – 3D, too many segments, have to refer …
Oops, but how to best present these data
This chart has been posted in a variety of places over the last week (@Flowingdata). Purportedly from UCSB’s newspaper, clearly (hopefully?) an earlier version of the graphic was submitted for printing in error. It got me thinking a little about how to display this information in the best way. As with any charting decision you …
Using charts to emphasize results: S&P vs. Life Policy
Couldn’t resist breaking this chart down from New York Life. It shows how $15,000 invested 10 years ago would have faired by either placing it in the S&P500 or in a life policy. There are a number of marketing ‘choices’ that while perhaps not deliberately misleading, certainly emphasize the performance of the life policy. The …
Data believability
The BBC news website has an article about how western demand for food and goods drives water shortages in developing countries. The interactive visual below is included. The problem I have with it is that the data just doesn’t seem believable – I’m not saying it isn’t true at all, just that when you deliver …
Design (in)considerations
A slideshow of some bad design examples I’ve been collecting. My favorites are the French translation making you find a 3.17mm drill and the chair that’s not a chair..
Animated visualizations: Don’t change the scale!!
I have an unhealthy obsession with weather – partly because we heat with wood, and partly because if it snows enough I get to use the snowblower on the front of my lawn tractor. Consequently I often have the weather radar up on my browser. By default, wunderground.com (and most others) show only the most …
Insights by IBM
Came across this in The Economist (who, by the way have consistently good charts that don’t discriminate against color blind readers). The gist is that IBM can organize your financial data from disparate systems into reliable, transparent, actionable information. Is the ‘chart’ they show a result of not buying their software, or what you get when you do? I …
