Chicken is King

So here we are. 2018 is here and so begins a new year of the popular dataviz community project, #MakeoverMonday. I’m putting my full amount of effort into completing all 52 weeks this year and blogging on at least half of them. So let’s get started.

American Meat consumption per capita by year. Here is a picture of the original chart.

What works well?

  • Good legend
  • The data:ink ratio is nice

What could be improved?

  • The title doesn’t really tell me much
  • The colors of chicken and pork are little too similar at first glance
  • While there are gridlines, I still have to estimate the most recent year’s amounts
  • I don’t think the raw values tell the best story

I can clearly see that chicken increased while both pork and beef declined but by how much? I think I want to show a percent change from the first year the dataset would better tell my story. Below is my makeover, click here for the interactive version

Chickens Rule

Regarding the title, I want to keep it simple and to the point. I think it’s best practice to do one of two things with dataviz titles:

  • Give your one sentence takeaway from the analysis
    • Tell your readers what you want them to see in the data, then prove it
  • Ask a question
    • Give your readers something to ponder as they investigate the data

For color, I want to draw the eye towards the story, so I’m going with a dark color for chicken and lighter pastels for the beef and pork.

Lastly, I don’t want my users to have to estimate the final numbers since that is the main point of my story. So adding a label to the final point with put a bow on this first makeover of 2018!

Until next time!

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