3 Comments

Nice write up Aatif. Useful, thank you. One minor disagreement on data viz: just avoid pie charts all together. They don't help make data easier to understand and they're plain bad for comparing data. Just use a good old bar chart.

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Thanks. I agree about the fact that pie charts are way over-rated.

IMHO bar charts can serve the purpose in most cases, but if you're trying to show a part-to-whole relationship, a pie chart with low distinct values can work better, especially if the distribution is lop-sided. They prove to be a glanceable artefact, especially when one slice dominates in size.

Bar charts don't clarify how each bar contributes to the overall value, of course, unless you use a 100% stacked bar chart which I personally dislike. I guess it comes down to personal choice then.

I found pie charts useful in my product marketing dashboard to track my paid/non-paid lead mix and also at vFairs, to track lead mix between virtual, hybrid and in-person events.

But apart from that, yes, people need to cut down on pie charts. They are heavily misused.

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A very good starter! Useful for checking your existing metrics setup or for creating a new one from scratch.

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