5 ms·

Why isn't this a pie chart?

JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> Why isn't this a pie chart? This visual seems to better preserve the size of smaller markets, like Singapore and Australia. In a pie chart, they'd be indecipherable.
- renewiltord 3y ago
  Interesting. It appears to me that I can better tell area differences between nicely shaped objects rather than long narrow objects. Is there a measure that can tell how nicely shaped an object is? The obvious one I could come up with is ratio of area of object to area of bounding circle. Closer to 1 is good. Lower than some threshold we pick is bad. I'm sure someone must have thought of this problem. It certainly works to optimize squatter triangles over long narrow triangles, and these shapes over arcs.
  - alanbernstein 3y ago
    One related problem: rating political districts for gerrymandering.
    - renewiltord 3y ago
      Ah ha I thought that and instantly dismissed it as "that's just convexity" but that's obviously false. You're right. Good one.
throw0101a 3y ago
"There is no data that can be displayed in a pie chart, that cannot be displayed BETTER in some other type of chart." — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tukey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tukey "Pie charts are completely useless." — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Bertin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Bertin "Pie charts subtract from the world's knowledge." — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Tufte https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Tufte , https://www.google.com/search?q=edward+tufte+pie+charts https://www.google.com/search?q=edward+tufte+pie+charts > Pies and doughnuts fail because: > Quantity is represented by slices; humans aren’t particularly good at estimating quantity from angles, which is the skill needed. > Matching the labels and the slices can be hard work. > Small percentages (which might be important) are tricky to show. * https://scc.ms.unimelb.edu.au/resources/data-visualisation-and-exploration/no_pie-charts https://scc.ms.unimelb.edu.au/resources/data-visualisation-a...
muti 3y ago
Furthermore, what is this kind of chart called? How was it laid out? Is it a one off manual kinda deal. Does this even have any advantages over a pie chart? IIRC people are not good at judging relative area at all, even circles. How much does un-wedging the pie help? At least with a pie chart you can try to compare arc length which may be easier?

> Why isn't this a pie chart? This visual seems to better preserve the size of smaller markets, like Singapore and Australia. In a pie chart, they'd be indecipherable.

renewiltord 3y ago
Interesting. It appears to me that I can better tell area differences between nicely shaped objects rather than long narrow objects. Is there a measure that can tell how nicely shaped an object is? The obvious one I could come up with is ratio of area of object to area of bounding circle. Closer to 1 is good. Lower than some threshold we pick is bad. I'm sure someone must have thought of this problem. It certainly works to optimize squatter triangles over long narrow triangles, and these shapes over arcs.
- alanbernstein 3y ago
  One related problem: rating political districts for gerrymandering.
  - renewiltord 3y ago
    Ah ha I thought that and instantly dismissed it as "that's just convexity" but that's obviously false. You're right. Good one.

throw0101a 3y ago

"There is no data that can be displayed in a pie chart, that cannot be displayed BETTER in some other type of chart." — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tukey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tukey "Pie charts are completely useless." — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Bertin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Bertin "Pie charts subtract from the world's knowledge." — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Tufte https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Tufte , https://www.google.com/search?q=edward+tufte+pie+charts https://www.google.com/search?q=edward+tufte+pie+charts > Pies and doughnuts fail because: > Quantity is represented by slices; humans aren’t particularly good at estimating quantity from angles, which is the skill needed. > Matching the labels and the slices can be hard work. > Small percentages (which might be important) are tricky to show. * https://scc.ms.unimelb.edu.au/resources/data-visualisation-and-exploration/no_pie-charts https://scc.ms.unimelb.edu.au/resources/data-visualisation-a...

muti 3y ago

Furthermore, what is this kind of chart called? How was it laid out? Is it a one off manual kinda deal. Does this even have any advantages over a pie chart? IIRC people are not good at judging relative area at all, even circles. How much does un-wedging the pie help? At least with a pie chart you can try to compare arc length which may be easier?