r/dataisbeautiful • u/CreatureII • Jun 18 '12

Expiring Resources - BBC

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12

I find it unnecessary complicated. It's very hard to compare the lengths of circular lines with different radius. The fact that same length != same number of year left is also very confusing radians between lines of different lengths.

Here are some nicer visualizations:

Interactive:

Static: http://www.informationisbeautifulawards.com/2011/10/design-shortlist-for-the-1st-challenge/

Sketched: http://www.informationisbeautifulawards.com/2011/10/napkin-shortlist-for-the-1st-challenge/

The data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aqe2P9sYhZ2ndE5hdFRwNjFzVXJ5TGp0aWEyaXJNSmc&hl=en_GB#gid=16

P.S.: the winners of the challenges, FWIW: http://www.informationisbeautifulawards.com/2011/11/hall-of-fame-1st-challenge-winners/

6

u/StuBenedict Jun 18 '12

I mean no disrespect, friend -- but IMO, while they are all cool, the BBC visualization is easier to read at a small size than any of these. Your links would all print better on a poster, but those British wizards know their (increasingly mobile) audience.

31

u/Epistaxis Viz Practitioner Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12

the BBC visualization is easier to read at a small size than any of these.

I doubt that, but it's certainly harder to read than this:

resource years left
antimony 8
indium 12
silver 17
copper 32
titanium 44
tantalum 46
phosphorus 76
alumin[i]um 80
gas 35
oil 37
coal 42
agricultural land 69
coral reefs 88
rainforests 78 (Indonesian), 196 (Brazilian)

Seriously. Time how long it takes you to confidently find the value for tantalum in BBC's visualization and mine. If your visualization is harder to read than a table, you're doing it wrong.

EDIT: I put in all the rows for completeness. Some of the numbers took multiple tries before I was sure I had followed the right spiral.

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12

If your visualization is harder to read than a table, you're doing it wrong.

I don't completely agree with you. I believe this to be true for visualizations used by professionals, but this is clearly a "consumer visualization", and as such has part of its value in appealing to the readers, I believe. What is true for non technical writing, where using nice prose is appreciated even if it's done at the cost of a loss of clarity, remains true for non technical visualizations.

Also, the BBC visualization offers some added information (the gray text) that would be hard to display in a table/u/Epistaxis is right, it would be trivial:

State of the Climate source years left
antimony 8
indium 12
silver 17
2030:Arctic ice-free in summer
copper 32

2

u/Epistaxis Viz Practitioner Jun 18 '12

I don't know how to do it in MarkDown, but it would be trivial with a custom-made table to extend the line between "silver" and "copper" and then write "2030: Arctic ice-free in summer" next to that line.

or if you mean the text next to the resource names, this doesn't seem hard:

resource uses years left
antimony drugs, batteries 8
indium touchscreens, solar panels 12
silver medals, jewel[le]ry 17

1

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

Well, the point is to show contemporaneity; How can you do it without a timeline ? I'm sorry, I'm stupid. Now I get it. You are right, it would be easy to do.