Single Bar Charts

Examples are reductions

Original overhead transparency

Customers are the happiest with Division F

Division performance by modality

(Percentage of customers who rate division’s service cost as good)

As shown in the original overhead transparency at the left,

•a different pattern in each bar unnecessarily emphasizes certain bars, complicating the chart and confusing its meaning

•small type is difficult to read

Compared to the chart above, the example at the left shows that

•the same color in all the bars makes it easier to compare lengths and avoids undue emphasis on particular bars

•marks at 10 percent increments in all the bars facilitate comparison

•large type is easier to read

Examples are reductions of 11 x 8 1⁄2 - inch formats.

Contact by Third-Party Service Suppliers Last Year 1 (% of Respondents)

Original print presentation

Contact by third-party service suppliers last year

(% of respondents)

one supplier

The multiple bar chart in the original print presentation at the left uses the following unnecessary elements:

•distracting screens

•legend

•white box labels for bar parts

Compared to the chart above, the example at the left shows that

•colors can differentiate the bar parts without the visual distraction of coarse screens

•bar part labels, displayed in a large size to the left of the first bar and colored the same as each bar part, eliminate the legend and are easier to read

•bar part percentages, displayed in a large size to the right of each bar, are easier to read

•the vertical line indicating 100 percent can be eliminated since no scale is required

continued

As shown in the original print presentation at the left,

•the four charts are confused as one when they are

-placed close together

-joined by the vertical baseline

•the coarse patterns distract the eye, fragment the charts, and contribute to the misperception that only one chart is displayed

•the small type is difficult to read and will not project well

Compared to the chart above, the example at the left shows that

•the four charts are made to appear separate and distinct by

-separating each with a space equal to the bar height

-repeating an even progression of tones

(from black through medium grey, light grey, and white) in the four bars of each chart

-omitting the vertical baseline

•the fine screens of black, used to make the shades of grey in the bars, eliminate the visual distraction of coarse screen patterns

•the large type is easier to read and will project well

Examples are reductions of 11 x 8 1⁄2 - inch formats.

U.S. PURCHASES 1880 - 1987

U.S. PURCHASES

Original print presentation

Although clear to its creator,

a chart may still confuse others.

After examining the example at the left, these questions remain:

•What do the bars and plot line represent? One must represent the number of dollars and the other must represent the number of units, but which is which?

•Why are the headline and subhead identical? Is this a careless error? Are there other such errors in this presentation? Are any of the figures incorrect?

•Why is the type so difficult to read?

What does that itsy-bitsy type along the bottom say? Does this chart actually reveal something the presenter wishes to hide?

As shown in the example at the left, the confusion in the chart above is clarified by

•using plot lines for both scales

•labeling each plot line

•eliminating redundancy between the headline and subhead by omitting the latter

•enlarging the entire chart so the type is easy to read

•placing close together the annual data displayed below the chart and the dates displayed at the bottom of the chart

Communications

Employee

gG

GE Identity Program