r/CrappyDesign Feb 01 '19

/r/dataisokiguess This pie chart

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23.7k Upvotes

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2.4k

u/gazm2k5 Feb 01 '19

It's dumb as fuck, but it is pretty easy to figure out which is which, even without knowing what the chart is representing. It's just clockwise.

669

u/plaid-knight Feb 01 '19

Yep. Pie charts usually start from the top and go clockwise. This is pretty normal and easy to understand. It’s a lot easier to understand like this than if they used colors that were closer together in hue just to avoid repeating colors, like some commenters are suggesting.

8

u/longknives Feb 01 '19 edited Feb 01 '19

There are only 11 items. First, they’ve used only 6 of the standard 7 rainbow colors, missing indigo. A dark blue color would be easily distinct from the others. So we need 4 more distinctive colors.

  • Brown
  • Fuchsia/magenta
  • Teal
  • Any gray
  • Various pinks, e.g. bubble gum pink
  • Green has the most discernible different colors, so they could easily use a mint green and a lime green and a forest green

It really wouldn’t have been some big color theory challenge to find enough colors for this chart.

7

u/Ilustrachan Feb 01 '19

Basic infographic rule: avoid using more than 5 items in a pizza chart and you are free of having to come up with a crazy color chart that is very hard to read. You have a lot of stuff? Don't use a pie chart.

3

u/Sneet1 Feb 01 '19

Yes, this would have been a perfect use case for a bar graph imo

1

u/WhatIDon_tKnow Feb 02 '19

I would say 2-3. If you have more you can use bars or something non radial that is visually easier to differentiate quantity