In this chapter we discussed why well-designed data graphics are important and we described a taxonomy for understanding their composition.
The objective of this assignment is for you to understand what characteristics you can use to develop a great data graphic.
Each question is worth 5 points.
To submit this homework you will create the document in Rstudio, using the knitr package (button included in Rstudio) and then submit the document to your Rpubs account. Once uploaded you will submit the link to that document on Canvas. Please make sure that this link is hyper linked and that I can see the visualization and the code required to create it.
Question #1
Answer the following questions for this graphic Relationship between ages and psychosocial maturity
Identify the visual cues, coordinate system, and scale(s)
How many variables are depicted in the graph? Explicitly link each variable to a visual cue that you listed above.
Critique this data graphic using the taxonomy described in the lecture.
Colour, position, length, coordiante system are some fo the visual cues used in this grpahical representation
Four pairs of variables menarche and psychosocial maturation have been used Colour: to disntiguish menarche and psychological maturation Length: 20,000 years ago- to distinguish between menarche and psychological maturation Position: 2000 year ago- to distinguish between menarche and psychological maturation Direction: 200 years ago- to distinguish these variables from others
The color visual cues to distinguish menarche and psychosocial maturation are very distinct in this grpahical representation. It tries to show there is a mismatch between menarche and psychosocial maturation in the present time. The scale of the graphic shows a time scale where there is a numeric quantity associated with other properties.
Question #2
Answer the following questions for this graphic World’s top 10 best selling cigarette brands 2004-2007
Identify the visual cues, coordinate system, and scale(s)
How many variables are depicted in the graph? Explicitly link each variable to a visual cue that you listed above.
Critique this data graphic using the taxonomy described in the lecture.
Colour, length, coordiante system are some of the visual cues presneted in this grpahic
Colour and Length: Marlboro, Mild Seven, L&M, Winston, Camel, Cleopatra, Derby, Pall Mall, Kent, Wills Gold
Marlboro was found to be the number 1 top best selling cigarette brand between 2004 and 2007. With the title and x-axis labels, the graph provides a clear context of what the purpose of the data graphics is to make meaningful analysis. The linear scale where x-axis represents sales in billions
Question #3
Find two data graphics published in a newspaper on on the internet in the last two years.
Identify a graphical display that you find compelling. What aspects of the display work well, and how do these relate to the principles that we have just gone over in lecture. Include a screenshot of the display along with your solution (Hint:use the following in a code chunk: knitr::include_graphics(“your_graphic”).
Identify a graphical display that you find less compelling. What aspects of the display don’t work well? Are there ways that the display might be improved? Include a screenshot of the display along with your solution (Hint:use the following in a code chunk: knitr::include_graphics(“your_graphic”).
I find this graph compelling as the data has distinct visual cues to differentiate.The scale of the graphic shows a time scale with appropriate spacing and key percentage change labeled that shows how the percentage doctor vists have increased over time in 2022-2023 post pandemic.
I find the graphic less compelling because it is messy and confusing. The data graphic has visual cues of color and length. It’s hard to distinguish from one line to another however, that leaves the reader/interpreter confused
Question #4
Briefly (one paragraph) critique the designer’s choices. Would you have made different choices? Why or why not? Note: Link contains a collection of many data graphics, and I don’t expect (or want) you to write a full report on each individual graphic. But each collection shares some common stylistic elements. You should comment on a few things that you notice about the design of the collection.
Answer: The study is a very well comprehended and represented visually using the appropriate graphs that engage the reader throughout. The story flows very well in the sense that the different aspects and datapoints associated with data scientists are well expalined. However, for teh part of ‘characteristics of data scientists’, I would rather have two big pie charts represnet the characteristics as the two columns of stacked characteristics is a lot of information to take in
Question #5
Briefly (one paragraph) critique the designer’s choices. Would you have made different choices? Why or why not? Note: Link contains a collection of many data graphics, and I don’t expect (or want) you to write a full report on each individual graphic. But each collection shares some common stylistic elements. You should comment on a few things that you notice about the design of the collection.
Charts that explain food in America
Answer: This collection of 40 data visualizations have different coordinate system, such as Cartesian coordinate system to convey the food changes. All of them have clear visual cue using color to distinguish different data points in the visualizations. Some representations are rather large- for instance the dominance of pizza chains. This could simply be a pie chart showing dominance across different pizza chains rather than a map showing presence in each territory of the US. This makes it less compelling and very difficult to go through every bit of the story to understand what teh real idea is.
