Why do we use graphs? simply, it is to make comparisons easier. Designers often make the wrong decisions in regards to presentation as they focus more on visually appealing results.
The example below (figure1) by Alberto Cairo from The Function Art (2013) makes comparisons using bubble charts, it gives us a good overview on of each of the banks and their differences in those two years but it made it made it difficult to accurately estimate the money as our brains find it difficult to analyse circles this is proven in the bar chart in figure 2 as it shows the difference in a much clearer and easierway.
(figure1) Market Capitalisation of the World’s Biggest Banks [Image] (2013). Retrieved September 28, 2017, from Lecture Pod 5, Graph presentation styles: why we use them.
(figure2) Market Capitalisation of Societe Generale [Image] (2013). Retrieved September 28, 2017, from Lecture Pod 5, Graph presentation styles: why we use them.
The more accurate judgements are made using bar charts that compares high or length, using charts like colour shading and bubble charts are use for more generic uses. The most common types of charts include a time series chart that plotting changes over time, a bar chart that makes companies between things, and a scatter plot that works well when comparing multiple variables.
Types of charts and their uses
Bar chart – They are commonly used because they are easy to understand and lots of people are familiar with them, it makes it easy to make quick comparisons and revel highs and lows and are effective when you have numerical data that slots into different categories.
Line chart– They are as popular as bar charts that connect individual numeric data points, their primary use is to display trends over time.
Pie chart – To be used to show the relative proportion or percentages of information.
Reflection
This lecture pod gave me a clearer understanding as to what types of charts we should use for certain data types and how they can be effectively utilised.
Data Visualisation 