

Reasons to use dot graphs - sebkomianos
http://www.maartenlambrechts.be/to-the-point-7-reasons-you-should-use-dot-graphs/

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tfgg
While doing scientific research I usually just use scatter plots. If you
summarise things into statistics it's too easy to miss things. However, some
of those plots were unreadable -- what the hell do the colours mean in that
unemployment rates graph?

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gerty
Yes, the missing legend doesn't help readability unless you're familiar with
Eurostat dataset terminology. Actually, that's total unemployment rate for
>15y at a regional level. Ignore the sex and age part - it's the total number
here. Colors stand for magnitude of total unemployment in a given region.

Here's the original version of the graph from Eurostat:
[http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/RSI/#?vis=nuts2.labourmar...](http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/RSI/#?vis=nuts2.labourmarket)

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twowordbird
Strongly disagree with replacing bar charts by scattered points with arbitrary
position on the horizontal axis (2 and 3). It is very difficult to
disassociate horizontal proximity from vertical proximity, and the former is
meaningless and distracting here.

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dietrichepp
Strongly disagree with your disagreement. The scattered points are very
readable. They present more data, data that's simply missing from the bar
charts. I always feel a little bit bad presenting, say, just a box and whisker
plot when the original data is so much richer.

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stared
It's a very important message. We, humans, are great at aggregating visual
patterns. So, most of the time, it makes sense to show raw data (and we can
make our own conclusions/observations) rather than aggregate it to much (there
is no possibility to go the other way).

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abandonliberty
As someone who works with data, this makes a lot of sense.

I challenge the applicability to people who do not. It is difficult for
significant parts of the population to digest simplified data (or file their
taxes). Reducing information density by turning dots into a histogram makes it
easier to consume (and hide the weaknesses in your paper).

This brings us back to the challenge of accessibility of published papers vs
scientific reporting.

I would suggest working in dots and including them as appendices, but
producing simplified (honest) visualizations to reach a greater audience.

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perfTerm
Hey if the author reads this nice article! On my iPhone 5S running the latest
iOS (8.3) and using Safari the pictures seem to cut off a bit. It might be
worth checking out if you're interested.

I enjoyed checking out the different uses of dots though. After the semester
and once my blogs up I hope to do some data projects so it will be fun to work
with different ways of displaying some of the information that comes out.

