Thanks Allan,
I shall certainly add this to my collection of poorly constructed and inefficiently presented graphics that distort instead of reveal the underlying story of the data. Students seem to enjoy thinking about, then identifying the flaws and then sharing a good laugh at them, in my Intro Stats units.
Further, I wonder if anyone has gone further and written a book on this issue; e.g. containing many examples of these types of ill-chosen graphics (plus the trends in bad graphics over time? E.g. when and how did bad 3D graphics become popular, and are poorly thought out 4D moving graphics coming up next?) and then perhaps even subsequently showing more efficient and clearer versions of them? I would love to read it.
Finally, I just want to add my opinion that 3D, and colours too, should of course not be considered automatically suboptimal, and sometimes can be wonderfully used in really smart and informative graphics, as long as the concepts being depicted have 3 (or more) dimensions that need communicating. I also (try to remember to) show my students good examples of 3D colourful graphs along with the poor ones.
Regards
Richard
DR RICHARD GERLACH A.Stat. | Associate Professor
Discipline of Operations Management and Econometrics | Faculty of Economics and Business
THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Rm 483, Merewether Building (H04) | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006
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W http://www.econ.usyd.edu.au/staff/richardg
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: A UK-based worldwide e-mail broadcast system mailing list
>>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Allan Reese (Cefas)
>>Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2010 9:08 PM
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: 3D graphs
>>
>>There's an apparent stand-off between critical and casual users of
>>graphs, the latter assuming that 3D must add something and that bright
>>flashy colours are attractive. A notable example occurs in the Sept
>>2010 newsletter from Timberlake under the headline "New in GAUSSplot 8.0
>>- Professional Graphics". It's also on the GAUSSplot website at
>>
>>http://www.aptech.com/3dcontour2.html
>>
>>What first caught my eye on the printed page, and equally on the
>>webpage, is that the cube flicks in and out of the page. It seems to do
>>so as my eyes scan the image. So first reason for writing is to invite
>>others to look at the image and tell me if they can hold it steady - and
>>which way! Is the flicking related to the choice of shading for the
>>axes planes and the lack of information on the light source?
>>
>>Second reason is to query the appellation "Professional" to such an
>>image. There's no context but the title is "Natural fabrics vs
>>Synthetic fabrics" and the third dimension appears to be added just to
>>separate the two groups. The type is labelled "3D contour plot" but it
>>appears to me to be a grouped bar chart with means indicated. The axis
>>labelling and colour coding appear synonymous.
>>
>>Apart from a Daliesque charm as abstract art, I can see nothing
>>professional or commendable in this graph.
>>
>>Allan
>>
>>R Allan Reese
>>Senior statistician, Cefas
>>The Nothe, Weymouth DT4 8UB
>>
>>Tel: +44 (0)1305 206614 -direct
>>Fax: +44 (0)1305 206601
>>
>>www.cefas.co.uk
>>
>>
>>
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