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Data Stories: Using Pie Charts, Grid Maps, and Text Analysis

Learn about the readability of pie and donut charts, explore how to make an easy grid map, and see how to best use graph analysis on text.

How Bad Are Pie Charts, Really?

Pie Charts 

A lot of conventional wisdom about visualizations cautions against using pie charts; the argument is that they are difficult to read properly. Robert Kosara (senior research scientist at Tableau Software) and Drew Skau set out to determine how different pie and donut chart designs affect viewers.

Their findings imply that most viewers are not using the angle to judge the amount. Kosara walked through the findings with explanatory charts on his eagereyes blog.

 

How To: Create Grid Maps

Gridmaps 

A grid map is a type of visualization that can show smaller regions equitably alongside larger regions. It’s not suitable for every purpose, but it takes up very little space to store or upload. Data visualization scientist Krist Wongsuphasawat shared some simple instructions for making your own.

 

Text Analysis and Literature

Text Analysis 

In this Medium post, Francesco Cauteruccio demonstrates a variety of text and graph analysis techniques on the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, including finding words that frequently occur together and using a graph to judge centrality.

About the Author

Lindsay Stares is a production editor at TDWI. You can contact her here.


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