From John Graham-Cumming, an excellent point about pie charts: they fail to convey information as well as bar or line charts. Why? Apparently, people aren’t able to perceive changes in area nearly as well as they perceive changes in length. It’s easy to see in this example from Wikipedia. Something to consider next time you’re designing that executive dashboard.
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That said, I’ve always liked using circular progress fields rather than linear ones — I find it much easier to see, say the 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 milestones in a circular progress tracker.
hi Matt,
When I first read your post, I thought it really depends on what you’re trying to show. But then I clicked the wiki link and see what you’re saying. If the data (pie slices) are close, a bar chart is much better. Pie charts work best if there are big differences, and even then, a bar chart may be better. Nice point! ~ Justin Show