A chart doesn’t make something true.

Data
doesn’t make something true. It bends. It
shows many things. So keep your eyes open.
Things to avoid in Data Visualization

MSBA 325
Fouad Zablith, PhD
 Types of Graphs to Be Avoided

Pie Charts

The pie chart below shows market share across four suppliers: A, B, C, and D. Which
supplier is the largest based on this visual?
Types of Visuals
 Types of Graphs to Be Avoided

Pie Charts

and now?
Types of Visuals

• Because of 3D perspective, the pieces at the bottom appear closer and thus bigger
than they actually are.
 Types of Graphs to Be Avoided

Never Use 3D

3D skews the numbers, making them difficult or impossible to interpret or compare.

Types of Visuals

For example, in the figure above, for January and February, you would estimate
visually a value of maybe 0.8, which is not correct.
 Types of Graphs to Be Avoided

Pie Charts

• Hard to read.
• When segments are close in size, it’s very difficult (if not impossible) to tell which is
bigger.
• You can’t judge by how much one segment is bigger than the other.
Types of Visuals

• We can replace the pie chart with a horizontal

bar chart.
 Types of Graphs to Be Avoided

Donut Chart

With a donut chart, the audience has to compare one arc

length to another arc length, which is very difficult to do.
Types of Visuals
 Types of Graphs to Be Avoided

The Secondary y-axis

The secondary y‐axis is another vertical axis on the right‐hand side of the graph, plotted
against the same x‐axis.
Types of Visuals
 Types of Graphs to Be Avoided

Alternatives to Using a Secondary y-axis:

1. Labeling the data points that belong on this axis directly.
2. Pulling the graphs apart vertically so that they have the same x-axis, but a separate
y‐axis for each.
Types of Visuals
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided

https://hbr.org/2015/06/beware-spurious-correlations
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided

http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided

http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided

https://xkcd.com/1138/
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided
Revised
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided
Types of Graphs to Be Avoided
 References

Yau N. (2013), Datapoints – Visualization that Means Something (Chapter 4)

Knaflic C. N. (2015), Storytelling with Data - A Data Visualization Guide for Business
Professionals (Chapter 2)

http://flowingdata.com/2017/02/09/how-to-spot-visualization-lies/
References