Data Management
- Thread starter Butter
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mmm4444bot
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I'm with you, Butter. There's often less work, reading a bar graph.
Consider the example on this page.
To find the number of retrievers on the pictograph requires (1) counting the number of doggie symbols and (2) multiplying 6 times 5 to get 30, as each symbol represents 5 retrievers.
With the bar graph, one only needs to read it.
Cheers :cool:
Consider the example on this page.
To find the number of retrievers on the pictograph requires (1) counting the number of doggie symbols and (2) multiplying 6 times 5 to get 30, as each symbol represents 5 retrievers.
With the bar graph, one only needs to read it.
Cheers :cool:
mmm4444bot
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Stay tuned. Somebody may come by and post an example of when a pictograph is better.
In that case, you may need to answer the question conditionally. That is, different types of data may lend themselves to different methods of displaying them.
In that case, you may need to answer the question conditionally. That is, different types of data may lend themselves to different methods of displaying them.
Hi Butter
What is the best way to communicate honestly?
There is no universal answer. I agree with you that in most circumstances a bar graph is easier to do, better able to make visual small differences in large numbers, and to organize data concisely. But your intended audience is always the critical determinant. If i had to try to make a set of numbers comprehensible to an audience that may never have seen a bar graph, I'd probably use a pictograph to ensure that everyone understood. The first and most important point in communicating is to be understood. That means addressing your audience in the way that is most understandable to them.
Bob Brown MSEE
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Emotion
Pictographs can communicate a feeling, when the exact numbers don't matter.
I'll never forget (during the height of the USSR arms race) seeing a picture of missiles on the front page of our news paper. Each missile had the flag of a nation and the size represented that country's stock of nuclear war heads.
It didn't matter to me whether the USSR had 5.2 or 5.3 times the US arsenal.
Pictographs can communicate a feeling, when the exact numbers don't matter.
I'll never forget (during the height of the USSR arms race) seeing a picture of missiles on the front page of our news paper. Each missile had the flag of a nation and the size represented that country's stock of nuclear war heads.
It didn't matter to me whether the USSR had 5.2 or 5.3 times the US arsenal.