Here is an interesting chart from Economist, ironically titled The weight of the world. Can you tell what is wrong with it?
That’s right. The coloring of dots is unnecessary. The color scale dots add an extra layer of complexity to the chart. They are redundant.
So there you go. A simple but effective rule. Don’t add redundant colors or extra layers to your chart. Your users are smart, so let them decode the chart.
Make awesome charts every time…
Check out these additional charting principles and case studies to make awesome charts.
4 Responses to “Office 2010 Contest Winners are here!!!”
I while ago I wrote a post on selecting a couple of names from a range via an UDF
I could have been handy.... especially because I didn't win.... lol
http://xlns.lamkamp.nl/?p=14
Sweet! I won! Thank you so much, Chandoo! I'm really speechless! I'll look out for an e-mail from you. Again, I really appreciate it, and I can't wait to fire it up!
Sincerely,
Tom "this one" 🙂
Thank You... Thank You... Thank You... 🙂
Hi,
Don't want to ruin your party.. 😉 but I noticed that when you sort the list A2:B11 (step 2), the RAND function re-calculates the numbers so that they are different and in mixed order again. I had to paste the whole area as values first and then sort to get it to work.
Wonder if the same happened to you because in your list at least Greg has a higher value than Tom 🙂