A donut chart is like a pie chart, only it allows more than one concentric ring, therefore more than one series. The distortion is even worse than a pie chart, because the area of each segment is a function of its inner and outer diameters and of the included angle. Leave the donuts for the cops and the pies for the diners, and visit a nice bar.

@Peter – I do think the donuts are just something different. However, I think they can be even more misleading than a pie because of their layout.

If it was me, I would have created a panel (line) chart for each segment over the 5 years.

I’ll drink to that!

But to the point, this is another instance where a bar chart is more effective. One could argue the presentation uses less real estate than 5 bar charts. However, the gaol is communicating actionable information, and these donuts just don’t do it well.

I think they can be used like you stated, if done very simplistically.

Then we go back to the harvey ball type font or a spot matrix chart shown in the following post: http://tinyurl.com/5m6s9d

Let’s not stray too far from the original point – they pie charts are very ineffective.

I’m not sure I totally agree with this assertion (without reading the rule you cited). If the small pies only contain two values (like the pies in http://www.fivethirtyeight.com, or if you use simplistic pies like those in some specialty fonts (with onlly 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%), I think they could be effective.

If I just add another black bar with the numbers for the companies that increased their dividends, we would have a great visualization… a table.

Click the link below to see the rule where small multiples can’t be pie charts.
http://tinyurl.com/5y7w8u