Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Too many slices

If you have to use a pie chart - really there are better charts to explain data - then limit the number of segments on the pie chart to give the reader a fighting chance of understanding it.

The pie chart below is from Rio Tinto's 2008 annual report (Rio Tinto is one of the world's largest mining companies). Apart from being a doughnut pie chart, which makes cognition even harder, Rio has 10 segments they are trying to compare. Nancy Duarte in slide:ology recommends a limit of 8 segments in a pie chart. I think even 8 segments is too many and would go for a maximum of six segments.



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