Warning against using pie charts

Bernhard Reiter had wrote a really nice warning against using pie charts, and he did put it on his plotting tool ;-)

Here is a peace:

"... Piecharts are generally not recommended to visualise information! Use bar- or pointchars instead if the quantities are important. Studies have shown that piecharts are hard to read if you actually have to answer questions about the numbers they represent. They look very pleasing and are used in a lot of places but they do not help to visualise information that well. Analytic thing person will read the percentages or values given on the legend or the chart itself and analyse them in their head. ... "

Check the full text at his web site.

Comments

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