CMV: Pie charts are rarely the best visualization option, and should almost never be used
I'm a business analyst, and most of my work involves getting huge stacks of data that I need to make sense of, find the "interesting" parts of it, and tell a compelling story with. This view I have started when I noticed I'd often get asked "create a pie chart showing...."
I noticed that pie charts seem to be ingrained in business culture, yet I despise them.
I said 'rarely' and 'almost never' in my title, and that applies to using pie charts in general. But if you want to try to change a 'never' type of view...I don't think 3d pie charts should ever be used, nor should two pie charts be compared side by side to show changes over time. Leaving aside your boss demanding this, those two things should NEVER be used.
Here's the general problem with pie charts though:
\- If the measures you're showing are within about 5% of each other, it's very difficult to see which one is bigger just from the chart alone. This is why pie charts require a number next to the slice of the pie. If a person is required to "decode" the visual like that, then it isn't a good visual. A bar chart is superior, since one can see the ranking of the measures even without the exact % next to it.
\- Being that they are a circular shape, they don't fit well into a dashboard. Rectangles/squares (such as treemaps or bar charts, or line charts, or...pretty much any other chart) make the best use of available space. Pie charts waste space as there are going to blank areas around the chart.
https://redd.it/e02vvq
@r_changemyview
I'm a business analyst, and most of my work involves getting huge stacks of data that I need to make sense of, find the "interesting" parts of it, and tell a compelling story with. This view I have started when I noticed I'd often get asked "create a pie chart showing...."
I noticed that pie charts seem to be ingrained in business culture, yet I despise them.
I said 'rarely' and 'almost never' in my title, and that applies to using pie charts in general. But if you want to try to change a 'never' type of view...I don't think 3d pie charts should ever be used, nor should two pie charts be compared side by side to show changes over time. Leaving aside your boss demanding this, those two things should NEVER be used.
Here's the general problem with pie charts though:
\- If the measures you're showing are within about 5% of each other, it's very difficult to see which one is bigger just from the chart alone. This is why pie charts require a number next to the slice of the pie. If a person is required to "decode" the visual like that, then it isn't a good visual. A bar chart is superior, since one can see the ranking of the measures even without the exact % next to it.
\- Being that they are a circular shape, they don't fit well into a dashboard. Rectangles/squares (such as treemaps or bar charts, or line charts, or...pretty much any other chart) make the best use of available space. Pie charts waste space as there are going to blank areas around the chart.
https://redd.it/e02vvq
@r_changemyview