"[…] a chart is a picture of relationships, and only the picture counts. Everything else - titles, labels, scale values - merely identifies and explains. The most important feature of the picture is the impression you receive. Scaling has an important controlling effect on that impression." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"A component comparison can best be demonstrated using a pie chart. Because a circle gives such a clear impression of being a total, a pie chart is ideally suited for the one - and only - purpose it serves: showing the size of each part as a percentage of some whole, such as companies that make up an industry." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"A correlation comparison shows whether the relationship between two variables follows - or fails to follow - the pattern you would normally expect." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
“[…] any point from the data you wish to emphasize - will always lead to one of five basic kinds of comparison, which I’ve chosen to call component, item, time series, frequency distribution, and correlation." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"A component comparison can best be demonstrated using a pie chart. Because a circle gives such a clear impression of being a total, a pie chart is ideally suited for the one - and only - purpose it serves: showing the size of each part as a percentage of some whole, such as companies that make up an industr" (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"Choosing a chart form without a message in mind is like trying to color coordinate your wardrobe while blindfolded. Choosing the correct chart form depends completely on your being clear about what your message is. It is not the data - be they dollars, percentages, liters, yen, etc. - that determine the chart. It is not the measure - be it profits, return on investment, compensation, etc. - that determines the chart. Rather, it is your message, what you want to show, the specific point you want to make." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"Don’t necessarily settle for the first idea that grabs you. Keep looking, playing with the diagrams, so that you find the right fit." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"I’ve observed that the pie chart is the most popular. It shouldn’t be; it’s the least practical and should account for little more than 5 percent of the charts used in a presentation or report. On the other hand, the bar chart is the least appreciated. It should receive much more attention; it’s the most versatile and should account for as much as 25percent of all charts used. I consider the column chart to be 'good old reliable' and the line chart to be the workhorse; these two should account for half of all charts used. While possibly intimidating at first glance, the dot chart has its place 10 percent of the time." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"In choosing between a column and a line chart, you can also be guided by the nature of the data. A column chart emphasizes levels or magnitudes and is more suitable for data on activities that occur within a set period of time, suggesting a fresh start for each period. […] A line chart emphasizes movement and angles of change and is therefore the best form for showing data that have a 'carry-over' from one time to the next." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"In preparing bar charts, make certain that the space separating the bars is smaller than the width of the bars. Use the most contrasting color or shading to emphasize the important item, thereby reinforcing the message title." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"Naturally, scale values are used in practice, but omitting them should not obscure the relationship each chart illustrates. In fact, it is a good test of your own charts to see whether messages come across clearly without showing the scales. This does not mean that scaling considerations are unimportant to the design of charts. On the contrary, the wrong scale can lead to producing a chart that is misleading or worse, dishonest." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"[…] no matter what your message is, it will always imply one of the five kinds of comparison. It should come as no surprise that, no matter what the comparison is, it will always lead to one of the five basic chart forms: the pie chart, the bar chart, the column chart, the line chart, and the dot chart." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"The suggestions for making the most of bar charts also apply to column charts: make the space between the columns smaller than the width of the columns; and use color or shading to emphasize one point in time more than others or to distinguish, say, historical from projected data." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"When showing numbers, round out the figures and omit decimals whenever they have little effect on your message; […]" (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"When preparing a line chart, make sure the trend line is bolder than the baseline and that the baseline, in turn, is a little bit heavier than the vertical and horizontal scale lines that shape the reference grid." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
"Whenever the form becomes more important than the content - that is, whenever the design of the chart interferes with a clear grasp of the relationship - it does a disservice to the audience or readers who may be basing decisions on the strength of what they see." (Gene Zelazny. "Say It with Charts: The executive’s guide to visual communication" 4th Ed., 2001)
No comments:
Post a Comment