No more boring tables— visualize them up
By: Weronika Gawarska-Tywonek
Tags: Graph, Charts, Storytelling For Business, Data Visualization, Storytelling

No more boring tables— visualize them up

In general, even though tables seem simple on the surface, they are complex when it comes to the analysis. All because we process tables differently than graphs.

Tables interact with our verbal communication system, which means we actually read them as we would read the book. On the other hand, graphs interact with our visual system and we focus on analyzing patterns and shapes. Our visual system is much faster because we can process large quantities of information only by looking at them.

A few weeks ago I found this series of tables published on YouGov Instagram account. Each post covered ranking of US states among one of the following groups — all Americans, Republicans, and Democrats. What’s surprised me was the fact that in the follow up article there where much insightful visualizations but somehow author decided to publish pages of text.

So how can we switch from boring and illegible tables to one chart?

Original viz by YouGov Us

Good data visualization solutions✔️

Elements that work in this chart

Descending sorting — makes it easier to compare states and find those with similar scores.

makes it easier to compare states and find those with similar scores. Providing both rank and actual score — which allows more thorough analysis. Some states are only one ranking place apart but the overall difference is significant like between Florida (1st position) and Arizona (2nd position) among Republicans — one ranking place and 12 p.p. difference. Or quite the opposite, there is couple of ranking places difference but the overall score is only a few percent lower like between Ohio and Utah among Democrats — there is 5 ranking place difference but the former has only 2 p.p. less.

Bad data visualization choices❌

Elements that don’t work in this chart

Splitting data — into three different tables makes it’s hard to see the patterns. In order to compare the result between these three groups, we have to read the first table, remember it, read the second table, remember it, read the third table, remember it, and lastly recall the data from three tables and compare them in our head. Not so simple, right?

— into three different tables makes it’s hard to see the patterns. In order to compare the result between these three groups, we have to read the first table, remember it, read the second table, remember it, read the third table, remember it, and lastly recall the data from three tables and compare them in our head. Not so simple, right? Not using visuals — Showing a wall of text is never a user-friendly solution. This would be bad enough with one table but comparing text data among three different tables requires three different screens or tedious adjustment of the tables position so they are exactly at the same place when you jump back and forth between tabs (been there, done that, got super frustrated).

Showing a wall of text is never a user-friendly solution. This would be bad enough with one table but comparing text data among three different tables requires three different screens or tedious adjustment of the tables position so they are exactly at the same place when you jump back and forth between tabs (been there, done that, got super frustrated). Distracting background — Putting the US map in the background brings nothing but a distraction and only obfuscates the data. To see the structure of the table we need to be quite concentrated because it’s not visible at a first glance.

How to make this data visualization better❔

Step-by-step improvements