Advanced Placement Exam Chart [Chart Review]
There are a few design changes I would make to the column chart below had I been the one to create it. This chart appeared in a recent copy of the Baltimore Sun newspaper and actually looks better here than in the print edition. In the print copy, there is shadowing on the columns, which makes it harder to read.
Here are the few changes I would make:
- A better title or no title at all. The title is very poorly written. This chart is showing the percentage of students who passed at least one Advanced Placement (AP) exam during high school. There is no possible way to understand what the chart is telling you without reading the text below the title. The title is very ineffective. Also, I typically capitalize the first letter of the words in my titles.
- The x-axis has a black line, but it is hidden by the columns because they are set to the front of the axis. I would have made the axis line set to the front.
- The abbreviation for the county (Co.) is not necessary. The only people that wouldn’t know that these are counties around Baltimore are people that probably don’t care.
The biggest change is probably the easiest to make. The title and sentence below the title take up at least a 1/3 of the entire area of the graphic. If you add in the source and designers signature, we are probably up to about 1/2 of the entire graphic. The data-ink ratio is diluted by the excess wording and non data ink used to create this chart. Simply put, use a good title and keep it clean. On a positive note, I like the lack of excess formatting that doesn’t add value; like gridlines, y-axis, column borders and tick marks.
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Most Commented Posts
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:30 am
On your suggestion 3, if you remove the the Co then you would not be able to tell the difference between the city and the county. You would then label Baltimore as Baltimore City.
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:12 pm
The data could be sorted by value, rather than alphabetically by location. Since there are only five points, sorting alphabetically does not appreciably help in locating a particular value.
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:33 pm
@Tad – Good point about adding Baltimore City to differentiate between city and county.
@Jon – I was going to list that as #4, but didn’t want to make the data seem to trend or be cumulative. I probably would have sorted ascending instead of alpha as it makes the chart more visually appealing.
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
The rest of the info-graphic at http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.advanced27feb27,0,612956.story is just as difficult to gain understanding at a glance.
It would also be useful to know the total count of students at each school and compare the number that attempted an AP test v.s. the number that passed.
I believe there is much more to the story that this chart is not telling.
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:32 pm
en, You let me belive that details leads to perfect .
I agree Jon, the data could be sorted by value.