Why Use Pie Charts?
I try to spend a few minutes each day in the Microsoft Excel Charting forum and it seems like each day someone has a question about pie charts. Today a question was brought up about overlapping data labels in a pie chart with 13 data points. Who cares about the labels . . . what can you see in a pie chart with 13 points? Why do people use pie charts?
This quote is brought to us courtesy of Juice Analytics. Coda Hale writes:
Piecharts are for middle management. Piecharts are the information visualization equivalent of a roofing hammer to the frontal lobe. They have no place in the world of grownups, and occupy the same semiotic space as short pants, a runny nose, and chocolate smeared on one’s face. They are as professional as a pair of assless chaps. Anyone who suggests their use should be instinctively slapped.
For the record, I avoid pie charts like the plague. I've never seen a case where a pie chart performed better than a bar chart or a simple data table.
Below are links to sources that explain how pie charts should and shouldn't be used. They also describe the data visualization problems associated with pie charts. Additional links would be appreciated.
