Due to the increasing amount of data and the increased use of data representations, it is natural that mistakes and ambiguity creeps into many of the representations. This most likely arises from the fact that in order to look distinct and striking, the designers tend to use shapes, figures and representations which look ornate and fanciful, but fails to do what it is designed to do – To give the viewers a good understanding of the data it is based on. Given below is an example of how trying to look distinct may tarnish the purpose of the representation.
The representation is designed to show the number of EU scholarships grants made available for students. The footnotes mention that a total of 270000 students were given the scholarships this year(2012-13) – highest since its inception. Which brings us to the first problem faced by the representation. The representation does not show/mention the total number anywhere. Even if we tend to look past this particular data omission, we are faced with another question. What parameter is used to illustrate the figures? Line length or the angle?
A careful analysis of the representation points towards line length as the parameter used to represent this data. But, the human brain is wired in such a way that it notices patterns and colors before raw data and numbers. As such, a cursory glance might confound the viewer into assuming that the parameter in use is the angle. Perhaps more important is the almost unavoidable error which may arise while trying to make sense of this representation. Take the case of Germany and Turkey, for instance. From the statistics provided to embellish the representation, it is clear that the number of scholarships for students from Turkey is less than 1/5th of the number of scholarships for German students. But it is nigh impossible to come to the same conclusion by looking at the representation.
The only word I can use to describe the representation for Spain is – strange. It looks like it has gone around the circle by 280 degrees, but in reality, a bit has been broken after ninety and have stuck it at the left.
In conclusion, even though the ‘bar chart’ looks distinct and different to the viewer, the information it has been designed to portray comes out as confusing, misleading and frankly, wrong. Upon further reading, I found that this type of representation is aptly named the ‘racetrack’ representation where the inner tracks are shorter than that outer ones, which results in the designer having to stagger the starting positions. I can safely say that it would be quite some time before I use this to represent data.
Source: http://junkcharts.typepad.com/junk_charts/2017/01/race-to-the-top-erasmus-edition.html
http://www.ibercampus.eu/-270-000-students-benefitted-from-eu-grants-to-study-or-2076.htm