Misleading charts and data

[Jon von der Heyden]

Last year my boss looked at me as if I had two heads because I'd never used a second Y axis. Anyone here ever used one?

Yes, I definitely think they have a purpose. Emma has just described one. Another example is to demonstrate sales v. sales volume, obviously depending on what is being sold. These can for instance describe increased sales through increased sales volumes, or perhaps increased sales due to increased product pricing.

I've been thinking about misleading data (rather than graphs). I think most of the stuff that I see (and produce!) is to do with poor labelling, not updating text when the data changes, assumptions not clearly noted etc. Probably not the sort of stuff you want for a presentation!

It's a tricky subjecct to present. Well I think so. A few of points I'm throwing in:

1. Pivot Data is more reliable. I will go on to demonstrate how efficient pivot tables can be. Most of my colleagues and our management are not aware of things such as calculated items/fields, show pages, date grouping etc.
2. Where formula are used, and where they contain names, a list of all names and their corresponding formulae should always be presented, with a brief description toward the purpose of each. I will demonstrate how VBA can be quickly used to ptoduce the list.
3. Summaries and raw data should be contained in independent sheets. This may make it easier to validate and also minimises opportunities to (accidentally) corrupt the data.

 

[Expiry]

In my experience, it's not so much that the individual graphs are misleading or wrong, more that there are just too many graphs.

When it comes to KPIs, many people forget that the K is for KEY. The number of pencils we get through could arguably be a Performance Indicator, but would you measure that? No, because it's not Key.

Sometimes there's a graph for every element of what we do and at best, that just dilutes the message, at worse it deflects the attention and energy from the areas that need it into somewhere that isn't KEY at all, but where the graph is telling the story that some people want.

 

[Long Nose]

Thanks Jon,

Apparently I have two heads. Our second Y axis are in $ as is the first Y access. It's confusing to me. If I could post a picture, I think you'd see what I mean.

Is there any way I can post a JPEG?

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

Sounds ominous but that may still be ok just as long as there is still a correlation between the two. What is each axis meant to represent? Presume there are labels?

You can post an image using http://photobucket.com/

 

[Greg Truby]

Is there any way I can post a JPEG?

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=204962

 

[Long Nose]

I can't open the link on our work server, I'll try tonight at home.

Thanks!

 

[Greg Truby]

I can't open the link on our work server, I'll try tonight at home.

Thanks!

A lot of workplaces are now blocking photo-hosting sites, which is a bit of a bummer. I'm curious, if you follow my link, can you see the example images I used in that other thread? Or do those also get blocked?

 

[Long Nose]

If I understand your question, then the Mr. Excel thread link shows no photos and the link to the photobucket is blocked.

 

[Greg Truby]

Not really "photographs" per se, but rather an image of a dialog box and a clickable thumbnail image of a chart should be visible underneath where I have How to Post Thumbnails and Pictures.

 

[Long Nose]

This is going to sound strange, but the first time I opened the link there were no thumbs, but on the second time there were thumbs and they opened the image.

Thanks!