The time has arrived for cumulative charts
And you thought that pie chart was bad...

Re-engineering #onelesspie

Marco tweeted the following pie chart to me (tip from Danilo), which is perfect since today is Pi Day, and I have to do my #onelesspie duty. This started a few years ago with Xan Gregg.

Onelesspie2021

This chart supposedly was published in an engineering journal. I don't have a clue what the question might be that this chart is purportedly answering. Maybe the reason for picking a cellphone?

The particular bits that make this chart hard to comprehend are these:

Junkcharts_onelesspie2021_problems

The chart also fails the ordering rule, as it spreads the largest pieces around.

It doesn't have to be so complicated.

Here is a primitive chart that doesn't even require a graphics software.

Junkcharts_redo_onelesspie2021_1color

Younger readers have not experienced the days (pre 2000) when color printing was at a premium, and most graphics were grayscale. Nevertheless, restrained use of color is recommended.

Junkcharts_redo_onelesspie2021_2colors

Happy Pi Day!

Comments

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Morgan

Care to share how you created your rather attractive "primitive chart"?

Kaiser

Morgan: In Excel, you just draw a repeated sequence of "|" (pipe symbol). Start with one pipe per unit of data. Then you can vary the # of pipes per unit of data in order to control the aspect ratio. Use the REPT function. Same concept if you're using a programming language like R. Just draw repeated symbols.

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