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Data Sets Data Visualization and Art Pie charts

Pie Charts

Pie charts are useful for depicting parts of a whole in a dataset. However, most people think that pie charts are a one-size-fits-all solution for data visualization, often making a visual mess of the data or telling a misleading story about its message.

Recently, the Pew Research Center published a report about the value of online instruction in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of participants in one study covered in the report say that online instruction does not have the same value as in-person instruction.

Source: Pew Research Center

Looking at the pie chart above from a design perspective, the researchers used a darker shade of teal to depict the majority opinion. In comparison, the lighter shade shows the minority opinion. The pie slice that is greyed out represents the 2% of survey participants who did not answer or had no opinion.

Pie Charts Related to My Interests

While looking for data that is better suited to a pie chart, I recall a census site created by a small group of Final Fantasy XIV Online players, XIV Census. Though the data shown on the site may not be up-to-date (only shows data collected as of April 2020), I did find a pie chart for Grand Company statistics. Hovering my mouse over each slice only shows the number of characters enlisted in each Grand Company, as well as players who have not progressed far enough into the game’s story to select a company. However, the information does not list the percentages, so I took it upon myself to properly graph the data.

Source: XIV Census

The chart on the left depicts Grand Company affiliation across all characters, while the chart on the right shows where all active characters are enlisted. Among all characters, the Company distribution seems fairly equal. Compared to the number of active players, however, it is evident that the Maelstrom and Order of the Twin Adder are the two most popular Grand Companies.

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Pie Charts: Good or Bad?

Pie charts are one of the easiest ways to represent your data. Some people seem to like using these charts and including them in their data stories. Others can’t stand them for a multitude of reasons.

I am a personal fan of pie charts when they are done correctly. In cases of 2 or 3 pieces of data, a pie chart can show you how each of their values differ in proportion to the size of their slice. But when you have 5 or more values, the chart can become crammed and you cannot accurately visualize the data.

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In this example, the values are easily identified and even have the values within their slices. This is a great way to show the significance of a number.

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In this example, it’s a lot harder to see each of the data sets. Sure, the slices are labeled. But things are beginning to get cluttered and overwhelming. A simple bar chart would be much better to show these ratios.

More examples can be found at: https://medium.com/@KristinHenry/in-defense-of-pie-charts-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them-df2e8ccb5f76

I wanted to include a pie chart of my own to show you what I think is the ideal chart.

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Pie Charts: The Tastiest Chart Around

So with the semester starting to speed up it’s no surprise to literally anyone that I’m starting to fray around the edges a little bit. I don’t handle stress well, what can I say. Anyway, I thought this pie chart would be a good way for me to easily display how my time has to get broken up in order to live. See below.

I think this is definitely the best way to display this data. I wanted to emphasize how much time work takes out of my life. I think it worked. I also think that it’s best to use a pie chart when trying to show a large difference between several things.