9/17/2016

PerceptualEdgeDesignExample

DesignExample
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ADesignProblem
ThefollowingsetofpiechartswasintroducedinmyDiscussionForumbyacontributor.
[Scrolldowntoseeoursolutiontothisgraph'sdesignproblems.]

Eachpiechartpresentsthebreakdownofoneoutoffourdifferentassetallocations.Becausetheonly
differencebetweentheindividualchartsistheassetallocation,oncewelearntoreadthefirstone,we
knowhowtoreadallofthem.
Whileaseriesofchartswasagoodchoiceforthisdisplay,itsuffersfromseveralproblems,manythat
stemfromtheuseofpiecharts,whichrelyonourabilitytocomparetherelativesizesof2Dareas
somethingwedopoorly.Whenthecontributorpostedthisgraph,hesuggestedthatotherparticipants
intheDiscussionForummockupalternativedesignsthatwouldcommunicatethisinformationmore
effectively.Healsopostedhisownexample,whichispicturedbelow:

Theprimarystrengthofthisredesignliesinthefactthatcreatorchosetousebarcharts,whichrelyon
ourabilitytocomparebarlengths(somethingwedoquitewell),insteadofpiecharts.Byswitchingto
barsandaddingarisk/returnscaleontheright,healsoclarifiedhowthevariousinvestmenttypes
rankintermsofrisk/return.
MySolution

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9/17/2016

PerceptualEdgeDesignExample
MySolution
Ifeltthat,whiledramaticallyimproved,theredesignstillhadafewproblems.Myredesignisbelow.

[Clickgraphstoenlarge.Iftextisdifficulttoread,yourwebbrowsermighthaveimagescalingenabled.Leftclicktozoom.]

Thefirstthingthatyouprobablynoticedwasthechangeinorientation.Whilethetwoprevious
examplesstackedtheirgraphsvertically,Iswitchedtoahorizontallayout.Whenhorizontalbargraphs
arelaidoutvertically,itmakesmagnitudecomparisonsbetweentwobarsindifferentgraphsslightly
easier,butifyouwanttocomparethesameitemsinmultiplegraphs,it'shardertoisolatethemin
eachgraph.Whentheyarearrangedhorizontally,however,it'smucheasiertoscanacrossarowto
seehowaparticularitemcomparesfromonegraphtoanother.Forinstance,byscanningacrossthe
MidCapbarsinmyversionofthedisplay,youcanquicklyseehowtheycompareinthevertical
layoutyoumustworkhardertofindthecorrectbarineachgraphtomakethesecomparisons,even
whenthebarsareunitedbyacommoncolor,asinthefirstredesign.BecauseIassumethatthemain
purposeofthisdesignistodeterminehowthedifferentassetallocationsdiffer,theextraefficiency
providedbyahorizontallayoutmorethanoutweighsanyslightreductionintheaccuracyof
comparisonswithinasinglegraph.
Next,noticethebarlabels.Thefirstredesignputthelabelsontherightsideofthegraphs,separated
fromtheirbarsbyquiteadistance.Imovedthemtotheleftside,rightnexttothebars.Thismakesit
easiertoassociatethelabelswiththeirbarsandalsoallowedmetoeliminatethelegends.
Finally,Iabandonedredandgreencolorcodingusedinthefirstredesign.Ididthisforafewreasons.
First,theuseofredandgreentogethermeansthatthecolorcodingwillbelostonthe10%ofmen
and1%ofwomenwhoarecolorblind.Second,Iassumethatthecolorchoicewasmadebasedonthe
impliedmeaningsofredandgreeninWesterncultures,whereredcansignify"bad"andgreen"good."
Itiscertainlytruethathigherriskis"bad"comparedtolowerrisk.Butredandgreencanalsohave
anotherapplicablemeaning:Greenforgainsandredforlosses.Inthiscasetheinvestmentswiththe
higherreturnsshouldbegreenandthelowestreturnsshouldbered.Unfortunately,becauseriskand
returngohandinhand,byusingredandgreentoencodethem,you'reboundtoencodeoneofthemin
acounterintuitiveandmisleadingmanner.
IfIhadsimplychangedthecolorsfromredandgreentoanothercombination,suchasblueand
orange,itwouldhavesolvedtheproblemsmentionedabove.However,thereisanotherproblem
associatedwiththebars,whichusegraduallystrongercolorintensitiestoindicaterisk/returnextremes
(bothhighandlow).Becausethecolorsofthe"International,""LargeCap,""Bonds,"and"Cash"bars
aremoreintensethantheotherbars,theyappeartobemoreimportant."MidCap,"fadesintothe
background,hardlyvisiblenexttothe"LargeCap"bar.Thiscanbeausefuleffectwhencertainbars
aremoreimportantthanothers,butinthiscase,eachbarisequallyimportant.Assuch,Iuseda
single,mutedhue.
Perhapsthereareadditionalimprovementsthatcouldbemadetomyredesign.Ifso,pleasefeelfree
tocontinuethediscussion.Bymaintainingopendialogue,wecancontinuetodiscusstheprosandcons
ofvariousdesigndecisionsandeveryonecanbenefit.
Copyright20042016PerceptualEdge

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