A1-AkshayKannan

From CS 294-10 Visualization Sp10

Good Visualization

Source: New York Times Visualization Lab Data Source: Library of Congress

This visualization provides an interesting summary of Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, based on the words that appear most frequently. Rather than traditional forms of summary such as a paragraph or article, this form of summary allows users to pinpoint which words were most frequently mentioned in Lincoln's speech.

Bad Visualization

Red Lines: Hilary Clinton; Purple Lines: Barack Obama. Different shades are used to represent Iowa, New Hampshire, and the US.

Source: Time Magazine

While the dataset in this case is certainly quite interesting, the choice of visualization is quite messy and does not express a good summary of information. The choice of a line graph is somewhat confusing, since the x-axis consists of discrete variables, so the graph has no meaning at the lines between data points. Furthermore, the close proximity and similar color of the lines for Iowa and New Hampshire makes it difficult to distinguish between the lines for those two states.

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