

 How to Choose Chart Types (pic) - nickb
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amit-agarwal/3196386402/sizes/l/

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scw
The source post, including a PDF version:
[http://extremepresentation.typepad.com/blog/2006/09/choosing...](http://extremepresentation.typepad.com/blog/2006/09/choosing_a_good.html)

One failing of this diagram is its reliance on 'what Excel provides',
including chart techniques that are difficult to interpret or misleading, such
as pie charts and 3D area charts. Please, for the love of quantitative
visualization, don't use 3D charts unless you understand the implications.

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nandemo
I'm curious, what's wrong with pie charts?

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scw
Primarily for two reasons: difficulty in comparison between charts, and
because comparing area is more difficult than comparing length. The Wikipedia
article has good background information:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pie_chart>

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voidpointer
On that matter, I heartily recommend Tufte's "The Visual Display of
Quantitative Information": <http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi>

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uuilly
Not included is what to do if your data is location based.

<http://www.vimeo.com/1998080>

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eru
<http://www.UUorld.com/>

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zby
In the broader subject of illustrating any thought I rather liked the
suggestions of <http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/>. The main categories from
it:

who/what - portrait how much - chart where - map when - timeline how -
flowchart why - multiple variable plot

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com
I like the Information Design site at [http://interface.fh-
potsdam.de/infodesignpatterns/patterns.p...](http://interface.fh-
potsdam.de/infodesignpatterns/patterns.php)

Click on the "Patterns" tab and select the categories on the left.

patternbrowser.org is a bit too busy for my taste, too hard to structure my
thinking about how to best chart information.

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matthias
Also, a Periodic Table of Visualisation: [http://www.visual-
literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table...](http://www.visual-
literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html#)

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schtono
My recommendation here is: Zelazny, Gene - Say it with charts.

