Correlation vs. Causation [Charting Chatter]
Here is a trap that is easy to fall in to. Confusing correlation as causation. As analysts, it is our job to see the data as it is rather than imply causation that doesn’t exist.
Let’s sample a chart, recently featured in Economist’s graphic detail under the title Measuring well-being.
Fish Eye Effect for highlighting selection – Is it effective? [Advanced Charting]
A few days back, WSJ ran a visualization titled “What’s your pay gap?” It depicts median pay gap between female & male workers in 422 different professions in USA. The chart uses fish eye effect to highlight the selected profession. See below demo to understand the effect.
Tell all versions of truth [Dashboard Best Practice]
Here is a simple but effective rule for your next dashboard. Tell all versions of truth. All versions? But there is only one version no? Of course, there is only one version of truth (or data), but you can present that in different ways, thus creating different perspectives, offering different insights. By using an interactive element (slicers […]
“How Trump happened” in Excel [visualizations]
During last week, an alert reader of our blog, Jørgen emailed me a link to “How Trump happened“. It is an interactive visualization by Wall Street Journal. Jørgen asked me if we could replicate the visualization in Excel. My response: “Making a new chart in Excel? Hell yeah!”
Read on for awesome visualizations and full explanation.
Don’t make your charts heavier than they should be – The weight of the world chart [case study]
Here is an interesting chart from Economist, ironically titled The weight of the world. Can you tell what is wrong with it?
CP041: 6 charts you’ll see in hell – v2.0
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In the 41st session of Chandoo.org podcast, Let’s take a trip to data hell and meet 6 ugly, clumsy, confusing charts. I am revisiting a classic Chandoo.org article – 6 Charts you will see in hell.
What is in this session?
In this podcast,
- Quick announcement about Awesome August
- 6 charts you should avoid
- 3D charts
- Pie / donut charts with too many slices
- Too much data
- Over formatting
- Complex charts
- Charts that don’t tell a story
- Conclusions
Shading an area chart with different colors for up & down movements [case study]
We all know that area charts are great for understanding how a list of values have changed over time. Today, let’s learn how to create an area chart that shows different colors for upward & downward movements.
The inspiration for this came from a recent chart published in Wall Street Journal about Chinese stock markets.
We will try to create a similar chart using Excel. We are going to create the above chart in Excel.
Looks interesting? Read on…