I was going to write about this the other day, but so horrifying was the experience, so psychologically scarring was the image, that I fell into a kind of post-traumatic funk from which I have only just recovered this morning.
The Qld Liberal/National Party recently released an economic document which you can see over here (the pdf download link is a big button on the right of that page).
It’s your usual political document – a big bag of clichés surrounded by pics of working people in hardhats and families with children (!!)
But nestled in the document toward the end is a single chart, although that’s probably a bit of a grievous overstatement. It isn’t so much a “chart” in as much as it’s a data representation so grotesque that one has to consciously fight off the urge to gouge out ones eyeballs with a teaspoon.
Not only did it break every known rule of data presentation, I’m sure it broke rules that have yet to be written. Below is a high quality capture of the crime in question – just click the picture to expand it to its exact replication in the document at 100% zoom.
My eyes, my eyes!
It’s blurry, it has a completely pointless third dimension, the background is grey, the bars are floating, the Y axis has percentage values to two completely redundant decimal places and the angle that the chart sits because of its third dimension makes it look like it’s folded when sitting next to the legend, as if it were some piece of weird graph origami.
But worst of all – it’s completely and utterly unreadable! The point of a chart is to graphically visualise data so that it can be more easily read and absorbed by the brain than a simple table. Good charts facilitate the mind into absorbing data patterns and relationships that might not be so easily spotted if represented numerically.
This… this… this crime against Excel looks like someone thought it would be cool and trendy to put it on an angle – somehow adding a dose of modernity to an otherwise banal document whose cliché’s belong in museum.
I’ve seen Excel abused to the point where therapy sessions have been the outcome, but never have I seen a chartcrime this egregious in a political document.
Ur Doin it Wrong!!
12 Comments
It also doesn’t demonstrate what it claims. Without knowing the actual numbers for revenue and expenditure you cannot know from that chart whether or not the state budget is even in deficit, let alone why, or whether the gap between expenditure and revenue has been increasing or deceasing. I’m also curious to know why they only went back three years. What demographic do you think they are trying to engage with this sort of stuff?
Ideally DrMick, my guess on the demographic would be “the blind”
I’m not sure how big the “oooh look, a chart and it’s in TEH 3D – it must be true!” demographic is among swing voters, maybe it’s just a LNP base thing.
All so true but … at least they didn’t combine maroon, red, royal blue, a lemon-white gradient, and a pastel green-white gradient on the same graph.
Talk about hurting the eyes
Hey, that’s enough of that cheek!
Everyone’s a bloody comedian….
LNP? Can I have a large Supreme with extra chili and prawns. I’ll leave the light on.
Does the screen version have cascading lava flows and wind directional arrows?
It does show in each year expenses has increased at a greater percentage than revenue but it could have been done so much better. I think most people who matter in an election, swing voters, dont look at the figures. They look at their bank account for federal elections and the quality of services provided to them for state elections.
steconone – which neatly explains why we get such crappy governments
The document looks like it is a rough draft produced by a student full of pizza and beer the day before it was due to go to the printers. It was also interesting that the chartist seemed to have trouble distinguishing between a calendar year and a financial year. This is the greatest joke we’ve seen from the Queensland Nationals since the Joh years, they are back to their brilliant best.
You know what? Not only is the graph bullshit, I reckon the data behind the graph is bullshit. The person behind it (the student full of pizza and beer) made shit up. The source is supposed to be “Report on State Finances; 2008-09 Budget”. But I can’t find the bloody thing on the Treasury website. It doesn’t exist yet. They have it for previous years, but not for 2008-9.
And I have no idea how the anonymous staffer got the figures for the graph – even using the data from previous years’ reports. I tried to do so – they all list revenues and expenses. I even tried to calculate the percentile changes from year to year. But there are mismatches between the figures and the graph. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the graph is one big fib.
what else do you expect from that side of the fence? they’ll fake any bs to peddle whatever fairy story they want to push – like Bush/Blair/Howard did with the Iraqui WMD.
I agree with steconne: The graph is supposed to show that Labor’s spending has increased ahead of revenues. However, the only way they can show it is with percentage terms, rather than in real dollar terms (which probably show a different story).