Monday, 21 January 2019

worst graph

A strong contender for the worst graph competition, the confusing title strips this graph of any possible context to the reader. The only chance of disseminating the data is to read the website itself, which only serves to inform that this graph is meant to chart the guesses of the height and weight of a woman nicknamed 'The Rotund' made by readers of the blog.

Arrow 1: The axis lines have no context. By reading the site it can be confirmed that the vertical axis is height in inches, and the horizontal axis is weight in pounds. The vertical axis is in increments of 3.4. Although it is even it still has an odd increment to use.

Arrow 2: The bars themselves are 'helpfully' labeled, but black lettering against a dark blue background is difficult to read. Not to mention that the distance between the labels makes them appear to be one long number.

Arrow 3: A legend has been added to clarify the colour coded data, but with no text whatsoever to give context. Reading the website does not clarify what the colours mean either.

Arrow 4: The white dot beneath 'Actual Stats' is meant to mark the point of where the subject's actual height and weight are present on the graph. The positioning, however, appears to be between two existing bars and the application of the third dimension makes it difficult to see exactly where it lies.

Arrow 5: The use of the third dimension alone adds no value whatsoever to the information. As stated above it only serves to confuse the reader further.

The use of a bar graph in general is a poor choice for this topic. Bar graphs are meant to show values and the differences over time. A scatter plot graph would represent the information much clearer and give the reader a better sense of what the average guesses were.