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.
2 Responses to “Weighted Sorting in Excel ”
Just add a column calculating the "performance" or whatever is your criteria and sort by it? No?
have no patience to waste 13min. Save your time too.
Just thought I would mention, the "weird" custom sort behavior mentioned at 5:45 where "% return" doesn't appear to be sorting is because the "August Purchases" field has the sort preference and since these are such unique values, no additional sorting is possible on the "% return" field. If there were two entries that had the same "Customer Since" year AND the same "August Purchases" amount, THEN you would see a sorting of the "% return" on these two entries.