INTEROFFICE

To: Dr. Oleksiak

From: Danielle Backowski
Subject: Analysis of Data Visualizations 1 and 2
Date: 24 October 2016

Data visualization number one is showing the monthly rates of mortality and something to do
with hematocrit groups. Honestly, its nearly impossible to figure out what this visualization is
even saying.
For starters, the graphic is extremely cluttered. While the use of color is minimal, there are too
many groups of bars that are very poorly labelled. While the side of the horizontal axis has
labelled each row of bars in a certain quartile, it takes too long to figure that out. It would have
been easier to create a key with each color and put it on the side.
The formatting of this visualization is also hard on the eyes. Other than listing where the
information was collected from, there is no title to tell us what the visualizations are for. There
are two different visualizations, each for a different set of data, but you wouldnt be able to
figure that out unless you took your sweet time analyzing them. The only indication as to what
the information means is the labels on the vertical axis.
At the bottom of the page there is a lengthy paragraph detailing what it means, but honestly I
didnt even read it because it was too in depth and complicated. If the creators were going to
write an explanatory paragraph of this size, they shouldve just skipped the graph all together and
included the data in said paragraph. The purpose of a table or chart is to show information
without having to use words, and this creator is definitely doing more work than necessary.
Data visualization number two is a map of China on a news program. Let me start with the
obvious. The country shown on the image is SOUTH AMERICA, not China. Although this is
clear, the creators of this graphic stuck a dot on the outside of South America and labelled it as
Hong Kong. Just take a second to let that sink in.
This graphic, while uncluttered and not overwhelming with color, is dishonest. Anyone who has
seen a map of the world knows what South America looks like, and if they dont then this news
program is giving false and incorrect information. If this graphic was labelled correctly, it would
be simple to understand and would nicely emphasize the story the anchor was discussing.