Redesigns

The “On…” series is a collection of short blog posts relating to data visualization, economics, presentation skills, or data communication. In each, I discuss an issue, concept, or idea that I have not fully developed, a work in progress, or…

Paul Kiel and Hannah Fresques at ProPublica wrote this really interesting article a few weeks ago about the geographic distribution of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit rates. They found that states with the lowest audit rates “tend to be home…

This stacked column chart from the USDA shows how effective tax rates will decline across seven farm commodity specializations resulting from last year’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). I needed to take a second look at this graph before…

When you look at this column chart from the USDA, what is the first thing you see? Go ahead, take a second… My guess is—admittedly, based on a sample size of three people I’ve already asked—that your first observation is…

Yes, tables are a form of data visualization. Many tables don’t include bars or circles or arcs, they do show data in much the same way as a graph. If you need to show the exact amount of every value…

Last month, Ann Emery wrote a post about visualizing statistically significant point estimates. She took a standard table with nine variables spread across three countries—27 numbers in total plus asterisks denoting four different levels of statistical significance—and remade it to…

I was cleaning out some old files folders on my computer and came across this column chart from the Wall Street Journal. As I’ve written previously, I find certain column charts with lots of columns difficult to read, and this…

Take a look at this stacked column chart from Merrill Lynch and reposted by the World Economic Forum. By itself, it’s a pretty basic chart that shows the distribution of spending across seven categories by four generations of Americans. On…