On Thu, May 14, 2015 at 10:31 AM, Adam Wulkiewicz <adam.wulkiewicz@gmail.com
wrote:
Rene Rivera wrote:
b. Use a regular shape, like a circle or square, that varies in size to show the percentage. This eliminates the bias entirely. Unfortunately the easiest way to do this one is with embedded SVGs. But it is possible, although hard, to do it with plain html+css. For an example of what this type of chart looks like take a look at the github puch card graph < https://github.com/boostorg/build/graphs/punch-card>.
That's a good idea. AFAIU it even doesn't need to be a regular shape. It could as well be a rectangle or an ellipse. For instance:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/awulkiew/data-images/master/summary-percen... or
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/awulkiew/data-images/master/summary-percen...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/awulkiew/data-images/master/summary-percen... it the browser supported CSS3 rounded corners. On older browsers user should see a rectangle.
Two things.. It's definitely going to look more pleasing, more natural, and hence easier to understand if it's a regular shape. The human brain is biased to that kind of understanding. You can't map the percentage linearly to the size of the shape. You need to map it to the surface area of the shape. I know this makes it slightly harder.. But hey it's humans we are targeting, and they are nasty to deal with ;-) -- -- Rene Rivera -- Grafik - Don't Assume Anything -- Robot Dreams - http://robot-dreams.net -- rrivera/acm.org (msn) - grafikrobot/aim,yahoo,skype,efnet,gmail