Data Visualization Analysis - The Most Popular Dog Breeds

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The data visualization chart created by Anjushree B V on the most popular dog breeds does a decent job at explaining and displaying the data. It displays an easy to understand list of the top dog breeds and colour coordinates the dogs to the circular line graph. 

The data visualization chart is simple enough that the key only needs two items that help explain the line segments well. Moreover, when you hover over the lines, you will get a box that restates which dog breed's line you're on and when you click a line, it highlights the line segment for the year you are clicking in.


However, there are a couple reasons why displaying data this way is not the best. First, turning what would have been a very easy to follow line graph spherical, made it hard to follow the lines even though they are all differently coloured. 

As well, pairing that with having the lines abruptly end and restart when a dog breed does not make it into the top ten list for that year is difficult to follow. Furthermore, including dogs not in the initial 10 dog breeds but having them on the same line path as those dog breeds makes it very jumbled and hard to understand even if the lines are different colours.


In this particular example, without utilizing the hover feature, I have no idea what the burgundy line represents, nor the lime coloured one. The wine red line of the Bulldog as well as the cyan line of the Rottweiler both meet at the end of 2001, but also merge with the lime coloured line. At first glance, it is definitely not clear as to what I am looking at. 

There are a couple tweaks I would make to this data visualization chart. First and foremost, I would not make this line graph spherical. Each dog would have its own colour and line space, even if they were not in the initial top ten in 2000 so that it is easy to follow all the way through. I would still utilize the line segment highlight option, but I would lower the amount of pixels used in order to highlight to something that is more easily legible. Ideally, the highlight would emphasize the highlighted portion, but also still keep the rest of the chart visible. 

All in all, it is a very good data visualization chart, sharing some much needed to know information, but there are also improvements that could be implemented to make it better. 

Comments

  1. Sunveer (Sunny) Sandhu21 January 2021 at 14:33

    Hi Coco,

    Good job on explaining on how to use the legend, and what it changes on the graph when you choose the different option, it makes the graph much more easy to understand.

    The one recommendation that I would give is maybe providing more info on how the line works. Also maybe you could have explained on when the lines go on top of each other, as in the screenshot you provided what happens?

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  2. Ashley Pocrnich25 January 2021 at 12:56

    Hi Coco! Your suggestions on how to improve this visualization are super detailed, going down to the pixelization! I think you really captured what makes the piece so successful and what makes it confusing. This is being very picky, but I think you could have explored more of the interactive nature of the visualization, like how you can highlight whole sections and have them focused on by dragging the mouse over them. Overall this is a super clean analysis and is a lot of fun to read! Great job!

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  3. Gursimran Panesar25 January 2021 at 19:53

    Hi Coco,

    I love the colors on this visualization and the way you were able to break down what needed to be improved and what worked well in the graph. I agree with making the data visualization into a line graph in order to make it more understandable. Overall, you did a great job showing different parts of the graph and giving a closer look to what you were analyzing. One suggestion I would give is showing how the graph is interactive and what happens when you hover over the lines.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Leila Nicar26 January 2021 at 00:39

    Hi Coco,

    Good job with this one! You seem to have covered all the bases with your explanation of the data visualization, its key, where it falls short and what could be improved. You even pointed out that some dog breeds don't keep their place in the top ten throughout the years, resulting in a different-coloured line taking the same place in the chart -- which is an inconsistency I wouldn't have noticed right away. I agree that the chart would be easier to consume if it wasn't a circle, but I'm a little confused as to how significant a difference a lower number of pixels would make. (That might just be me, though.) Regardless, good job!

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