80 votes

Should a pie chart show the legend for a wedge with 0%?

Show the numbers. If the user selected three fruits to be shown, Apples, Oranges, and Melons, and only sees Apples and Melons in the pie and in the legend, they will wonder where the Oranges went. If ...
SQB's user avatar
  • 1,295
61 votes

Are there any cons in using rounded corners for bar graphs?

There is a paper by Skau et al. (2015) that investigates in how far the effectiveness of bar charts is affected by different types of visual alternations. The authors tesed whether these alternations ...
Schmuddi's user avatar
  • 786
53 votes

Background for black and white chart

White is giving the appearance as the absence of data. Data visualization is not about what you intend, it's about what they perceive. Black and white have connotations as opposites. Some cultural ...
Mike M's user avatar
  • 24.6k
51 votes
Accepted

Good way to visualize complex AND/OR query/criteria?

I really like the iTunes way of laying out a rule builder. It's quite easy to follow. With that in mind, here is an example using that paradigm: download bmml source – Wireframes created with ...
kerr's user avatar
  • 966
50 votes

Should a pie chart show the legend for a wedge with 0%?

How about his. show the percentage in the legend: Apples (20%) Melons (80%) Oranges (0%)
SAWilliams's user avatar
41 votes
Accepted

Are there any cons in using rounded corners for bar graphs?

If the users' goal is to read a specific or accurate value from the bar's length, then @Schmuddi's answer describes the importance of having a flat end. An example of this would be a traditional glass ...
maxathousand's user avatar
  • 19.5k
38 votes

Good way to visualize complex AND/OR query/criteria?

How about building a flowchart? An OR could be expressed by a fork in the flow. An AND could be expressed by joining two criteria in the same flow path. For example, ( A ∧ B ) ∨ ( C ∧ D ) could be ...
Locoluis's user avatar
  • 481
35 votes

Background for black and white chart

Stacked bar charts often use a darker colour at the bottom and lighter colour at the top. Bolder darker colours look strong and more supportive of what's on top. Your chart bars looks top heavy, with ...
Roger Attrill's user avatar
32 votes

How should I visualize the average of two bars in a bar chart?

You could show the average in a large bar, and put the separate categories inside in smaller bars. If you use Excel and use two axes, make sure they both have the same scale.
Niels's user avatar
  • 429
30 votes

Graph with overlapping labels

You have several visualization problems to solve in one graph. How are the users interacting with this? Your question is focused mostly on labels, however, you also mentioned showing when an element ...
Mike M's user avatar
  • 24.6k
28 votes

Should a pie chart show the legend for a wedge with 0%?

Yes, show it. The data IS important. Others gave given good reasons (the inclusion of Oranges clarifies they HAD been taken into account) and suggestions (show percentages or numbers, show a thin ...
kaay's user avatar
  • 401
27 votes

Showing a large amount of trend-lines on a single graph

For a quick look, rendering all the lines with low opacity allows seeing the most common values and any outliers quickly: Then you can provide a way to select groups or specific measurements to ...
jpa's user avatar
  • 458
22 votes

Background for black and white chart

If black and white maps to the colors of the products, then consider outlining the white bar to add some contrast. Some Tips: What to consider when creating stacked column charts
Nicolas Hung's user avatar
  • 5,578
21 votes

Should a pie chart show the legend for a wedge with 0%?

Don't use a pie chart Your problem stems from the fact you're using a pie chart. Pie charts are simply not a very good way of representing data (see here, here, here or here for some discussions of ...
Jack Aidley's user avatar
  • 1,193
20 votes

What's a better way to show number of staff at a location on a bar graph?

If you need to show correlation (or lack of it) between two sets of data like this, a dual-axis chart can do that. Here, the blobs are shown on the right-hand axis (What I can't do easily is put the ...
Andrew Leach's user avatar
  • 4,370
19 votes
Accepted

Graph with overlapping labels

If it is absolutely necessary to see all the amounts in detail all the time you could go with a variation of your second solution but still keep the figures in one column. like this Alternatively you ...
BrunoH's user avatar
  • 3,415
18 votes

What's a better way to show number of staff at a location on a bar graph?

Maybe simply show it close to but separate from the graph? So both pieces of information are clear to see and understand:
Mahm00d's user avatar
  • 368
16 votes

Intuitive interface for Composing Boolean Logic?

There is a jquery plugin to do this, called QueryBuilder, which do this in an interesting way : http://mistic100.github.io/jQuery-QueryBuilder/
Rey0bs's user avatar
  • 285
16 votes

Tabular vs Card-based presentation, which is better for lots of data?

Adding to @DesignerAnalyst's answer. Here are some parameters you may want to consider before selecting the metaphor, Amount of data for each record: If the data includes text, images, actions then a ...
Harshal's user avatar
  • 3,105
15 votes

How should I visualize the average of two bars in a bar chart?

If you really just mean the average of the two numbers, why not just leave the gray bars out, with nothing in their place? It's pretty easy to estimate visually. I think that's why there are few ...
Mark Foskey's user avatar
14 votes

Intuitive interface for Composing Boolean Logic?

There's quite a few good ideas/references here, especially to some existing approaches. Often, though not always, Apple's approach is a good place to start - but perhaps in your case it may not be. I ...
Monomeeth's user avatar
  • 3,826
14 votes

Should a pie chart show the legend for a wedge with 0%?

Definitely keep it in the legend. If you only have the two items in the legend it looks like you created a chart to show the comparison of Apples and Melons. For all the user knows there could be ...
DasBeasto's user avatar
  • 15.3k
14 votes

How should I visualize the average of two bars in a bar chart?

A simple idea would be to show the average as a line graph, like this:
Glorfindel's user avatar
  • 3,310
14 votes

How should I visualize the average of two bars in a bar chart?

Your second one seems fine to me to be honest. It's the least extra 'ink', and it's how single series bar charts show averages, you're just doing it for the items at each x value. You can see an ...
mgraham's user avatar
  • 1,783
13 votes

Is there a visual way to represent drag capability?

You can add a scrollbar or preview chart to clearly indicate that users can zoom in/out and interact with the chart. This makes instructional text unnecessary. See the following demos. In addition ...
Elizabeth's user avatar
  • 336
13 votes
Accepted

Visualize asset age

Bars with individual years will be a better choice than age ranges because the ranged representation may hide fine details like the trend of new road constructions over the years. I would draw a bar ...
Raiyan's user avatar
  • 511
12 votes
Accepted

What is the minimum waiting time after when should a page loader be displayed to the user?

If loading time is more than 1 second. It is one of the classics, going back to 1968. 1.0 second is about the limit for the user's flow of thought to stay uninterrupted, even though the user will ...
locationunknown's user avatar
12 votes

Good way to visualize complex AND/OR query/criteria?

With all the information I'd present something like this: download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups The idea is that OR criteria are placed parallel (one above the other, ...
Mike's user avatar
  • 3,125
11 votes

How to show negative values in a pie chart?

Use the right visualization Pie charts represent constituents of a whole. As you've discovered, this doesn't work when numbers can go into the red. Use bar or line charts for more flexible (and ...
plainclothes's user avatar
  • 21.3k
11 votes
Accepted

Is there a visual way to represent drag capability?

When the cursor enters the graph area, change its symbol to a "move cursor" : EDIT : An alternative solution is use this icon when the mouse enters the graph area : and this icon when user clicks ...
DesignerAnalyst's user avatar

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