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This example shows why using pie graphs can hide the key story in your data. The numbers have been disguised and purposefully don't add up to 100% to maintain the privacy of the source and illustrate the point. ============== A speaker projected a pie chart, like the one above, on a big screen. The story is interesting and compelling, but... ...the pie hides the key point - the presenter's social media programs successfully replaced lower converting search visitors with higher converting social media visitors. Plus the pie chart fails the "squint test" because the audience can't read the graph, especially from the back of the room. And, showing two pies next to each other masks the year to year change, which is what reveals social media traffic grew at the expense of search traffic. Instead, the line graph shows the difference over time, and reveals the success of the presenter's Social Media programs. Produced with Tableau
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A Real World Example of How Pie Charts Communicate Poorly
A speaker projected a pie chart, like the one above, on a big screen. The story is in-teresting and compelling, but......the pie hides the key point - the presenter's social media programs successfully re-placed lower converting search visitors with higher converting social media visitors.Plus the pie chart fails the "squint test" because the audience can't read the graph, especially from the back of the room.And, showing two pies next to each other masks the year to year change, which is what reveals social media traffic grewat the expense of search traffic.Instead, the line graph shows the difference over time, and reveals the success of the presenter's Social Media programs.Produced with Tableau
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2011 201210%
30%
5%5%
40%
4%Before = Pie Chart
Traffic SourceSocial MediaSearchPPC
2011 20120%5%10%15%20%25%30%35%40%
Pct of Total T
raffic
Search
Social Media
After = Better = Same Data in Line Graph
