Re: [flexcoders] Charting Wildly Varying Numbers in Flex
I find that charts aren't always the best way to express information. Why not provide a table with property values, at risk values, and percentage of property values at risk instead? Great site, btw. On 5/14/07, charlie.szymanski [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have an interesting issue with a mini charting application I am trying to create. You can see my current attempt here: http://ibiseye.com/?stormID=AT200403active=1season=2004wind=145name=Charleyzoom=5lat=26.3lng=-71.050001 and click Charley Synopsis Basically, we are using hurricane wind-fields and a giant database of all the property parcels in the state of Florida to calculate how much property value was at risk during a given hurricane (this is live during the season if a storm is forecasted or does go over Florida). The problem is that the numbers are exceptionally varying in range. If you look at the bars on that Flex Chart you'll notice we are using the Logarithmic scale . The reason we had to do this is that the all data (or even the data within the different categories if the 'all' data is removed) is usually hugely different in value. This difference is exasperated by differences in property types. What happens is you end up with a chart where the bars are barely visible for a number of the property types (which are even less visible if the chart is not scaled logarithmically for the all category). If you mouse over the current chart values, you'll get the actual dollar value of each bar. It's easy to see (especially in the Residential type) just how misleading the chart could be. They look almost the same, but the blue bar is actually 5x greater than the red one. Has anyone run into this issue before and do you all have any good ideas of how to get around it? Right now I'm not really even looking for code, but more of any creative solutions to displaying that information in a way that isn't misleading (which the current scale may be -- you have to remember how many old people live in Florida). Thanks for any insight, Charlie
Re: [flexcoders] Charting Wildly Varying Numbers in Flex
Adam Simon,
Adam, thanks for the kind words about the site -- it's been a lot of work.
Hopefully it'll do some good if a hurricane approaches us.
As to your table idea, we may end up going that route. Last year we had a list
of dollar values broken down by type (not quite as you suggested, but similar).
The issue was that it was overwhelming to users. I suspect taking Simon's
advice and rounding the numbers (You're right Simon, it is just spitting those
numbers out of a calculation, and there is certainly a margin of error) may
alleviate this issue. We were just hoping to do something graphical with the
data this time around.
The biggest problem I have with doing a pie chart is that some of the slices
end up very, very tiny due to the huge difference in the Residential and
other values.
Also, the I'm reticent to remove the Total information (or hide it) because
we'd love to provide a quick picture of what is actually at risk. Ideally it
would be a percentage, but as mentioned above, those slices get very tiny.
Thanks for both of your thoughts on the matter, I have a lot of thinking to do
(and a lot of smarter people than I looking at the problem), so hopefully we'll
come up with something graceful.
Charlie
- Original Message
From: Adam Dorritie [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 9:00:14 AM
Subject: Re: [flexcoders] Charting Wildly Varying Numbers in Flex
I find that charts aren't always the best way to express
information. Why not provide a table with property values, at risk values, and
percentage of property values at risk instead?
Great site, btw.
On 5/14/07, charlie.szymanski charlie.szymanski@ yahoo.com wrote:
I have an interesting issue with a mini charting application I am
trying to create.
You can see my current attempt here:
http://ibiseye. com/?stormID=
AT200403active=1season=2004wind=145name=Charleyzoom=5lat=26.3lng=-71.050
001
and click Charley Synopsis
Basically, we are using hurricane wind-fields and a giant database of
all the property parcels in the state of Florida to calculate how much
property value was at risk during a given hurricane (this is live
during the season if a storm is forecasted or does go over Florida).
The problem is that the numbers are exceptionally varying in range. If
you look at the bars on that Flex Chart you'll notice we are using the
Logarithmic scale . The reason we had to do this is that the all
data (or even the data within the different categories if the 'all'
data is removed) is usually hugely different in value. This difference
is exasperated by differences in property types. What happens is you
end up with a chart where the bars are barely visible for a number of
the property types (which are even less visible if the chart is not
scaled logarithmically for the all category).
If you mouse over the current chart values, you'll get the actual
dollar value of each bar. It's easy to see (especially in the
Residential type) just how misleading the chart could be. They look
almost the same, but the blue bar is actually 5x greater than the red one.
Has anyone run into this issue before and do you all have any good
ideas of how to get around it? Right now I'm not really even looking
for code, but more of any creative solutions to displaying that
information in a way that isn't misleading (which the current scale
may be -- you have to remember how many old people live in Florida).
Thanks for any insight,
Charlie
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Re: [flexcoders] Charting Wildly Varying Numbers in Flex
You could add up small items in a others item and drill down when clicking on it. See Eli's blog about drill down piecharts at www. quietlyscheming.com Cheers, Ralf. On 5/15/07, Charlie Szymanski [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Adam Simon, Adam, thanks for the kind words about the site -- it's been a lot of work. Hopefully it'll do some good if a hurricane approaches us. As to your table idea, we may end up going that route. Last year we had a list of dollar values broken down by type (not quite as you suggested, but similar). The issue was that it was overwhelming to users. I suspect taking Simon's advice and rounding the numbers (You're right Simon, it is just spitting those numbers out of a calculation, and there is certainly a margin of error) may alleviate this issue. We were just hoping to do something graphical with the data this time around. The biggest problem I have with doing a pie chart is that some of the slices end up very, very tiny due to the huge difference in the Residential and other values. Also, the I'm reticent to remove the Total information (or hide it) because we'd love to provide a quick picture of what is actually at risk. Ideally it would be a percentage, but as mentioned above, those slices get very tiny. Thanks for both of your thoughts on the matter, I have a lot of thinking to do (and a lot of smarter people than I looking at the problem), so hopefully we'll come up with something graceful. Charlie - Original Message From: Adam Dorritie [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 9:00:14 AM Subject: Re: [flexcoders] Charting Wildly Varying Numbers in Flex I find that charts aren't always the best way to express information. Why not provide a table with property values, at risk values, and percentage of property values at risk instead? Great site, btw. On 5/14/07, charlie.szymanski charlie.szymanski@ yahoo.com[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have an interesting issue with a mini charting application I am trying to create. You can see my current attempt here: http://ibiseye. com/?stormID= AT200403active=1season=2004wind=145name=Charleyzoom=5lat=26.3lng=-71.050 001http://ibiseye.com/?stormID=AT200403active=1season=2004wind=145name=Charleyzoom=5lat=26.3lng=-71.050001 and click Charley Synopsis Basically, we are using hurricane wind-fields and a giant database of all the property parcels in the state of Florida to calculate how much property value was at risk during a given hurricane (this is live during the season if a storm is forecasted or does go over Florida). The problem is that the numbers are exceptionally varying in range. If you look at the bars on that Flex Chart you'll notice we are using the Logarithmic scale . The reason we had to do this is that the all data (or even the data within the different categories if the 'all' data is removed) is usually hugely different in value. This difference is exasperated by differences in property types. What happens is you end up with a chart where the bars are barely visible for a number of the property types (which are even less visible if the chart is not scaled logarithmically for the all category). If you mouse over the current chart values, you'll get the actual dollar value of each bar. It's easy to see (especially in the Residential type) just how misleading the chart could be. They look almost the same, but the blue bar is actually 5x greater than the red one. Has anyone run into this issue before and do you all have any good ideas of how to get around it? Right now I'm not really even looking for code, but more of any creative solutions to displaying that information in a way that isn't misleading (which the current scale may be -- you have to remember how many old people live in Florida). Thanks for any insight, Charlie -- Building a website is a piece of cake. Yahoo! Small Business gives you all the tools to get online.http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=48251/*http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting/?p=PASSPORTPLUS -- Ralf Bokelberg [EMAIL PROTECTED] Flex Flash Consultant based in Cologne/Germany Phone +49 (0) 221 530 15 35
Re: [flexcoders] Charting Wildly Varying Numbers in Flex
Ralph,
That may actually work. I'll give it a whirl sometime this week and see how it
looks. Can't believe I didn't think of it before -- I guess that's what happens
when you're buried deep in code for a month.
Thanks,
CS
- Original Message
From: Ralf Bokelberg [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 2:54:57 PM
Subject: Re: [flexcoders] Charting Wildly Varying Numbers in Flex
You could add up small items in a others item and drill down when
clicking on it.
See Eli's blog about drill down piecharts at www. quietlyscheming. com
Cheers,
Ralf.
On 5/15/07, Charlie Szymanski charlie.szymanski@ yahoo.com wrote:
Adam Simon,
Adam, thanks for the kind words about the site -- it's been a lot of work.
Hopefully it'll do some good if a hurricane approaches us.
As to your table idea, we may end up going that route. Last year we had a list
of dollar values broken down by type (not quite as you suggested, but similar).
The issue was that it was overwhelming to users. I suspect taking Simon's
advice and rounding the numbers (You're right Simon, it is just spitting those
numbers out of a calculation, and there is certainly a margin of error) may
alleviate this issue. We were just hoping to do something graphical with the
data this time around.
The biggest problem I have with doing a pie chart is that some of the slices
end up
very, very tiny due to the huge difference in the Residential and other
values.
Also, the I'm reticent to remove the Total information (or hide it) because
we'd love to provide a quick picture of what is actually at risk. Ideally it
would be a percentage, but as mentioned above, those slices get very tiny.
Thanks for both of your thoughts on the matter, I have a lot of thinking to do
(and a lot of smarter people than I looking at the problem), so hopefully we'll
come up with something graceful.
Charlie
- Original Message
From: Adam Dorritie
[EMAIL PROTECTED] com
To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 9:00:14 AM
Subject: Re: [flexcoders] Charting Wildly Varying Numbers in Flex
I find that charts aren't always the best way to express
information. Why not provide a table with property values, at risk values, and
percentage of property values at risk instead?
Great site, btw.
On 5/14/07, charlie.szymanski
charlie.szymanski@ yahoo.com wrote:
I have an interesting issue with a mini charting application I am
trying to create.
You can see my current attempt here:
http://ibiseye. com/?stormID=
AT200403active=1season=2004wind=145name=Charleyzoom=5lat=26.3lng=-71.050
001
and click Charley Synopsis
Basically, we are using hurricane wind-fields and a giant database of
all the property parcels in the state of Florida to calculate how much
property value was at risk during a given hurricane (this is live
during the season if a storm is forecasted or does go over Florida).
The problem is that the numbers are exceptionally varying in range. If
you look at the bars on that Flex Chart you'll notice we are using the
Logarithmic scale . The reason we had to do this is that the all
data (or even the data within the different categories if the 'all'
data is removed) is usually hugely different in value. This difference
is exasperated by differences in property types. What happens is you
end up with a chart where the bars are barely visible for a number of
the property types (which are even less visible if the chart is not
scaled logarithmically for the all category).
If you mouse over the current chart values, you'll get the actual
dollar value of each bar. It's easy to see (especially in the
Residential type) just how misleading the chart could be. They look
almost the same, but the blue bar is actually 5x greater than the red one.
Has anyone run into this issue before and do you all have any good
ideas of how to get around it? Right now I'm not really even looking
for code, but more of any creative solutions to displaying that
information in a way that isn't misleading (which the current scale
may be -- you have to remember how many old people live in Florida).
Thanks for any insight,
Charlie
Building a website is a piece of cake.
Yahoo! Small Business gives you
all the tools to get online.
--
Ralf Bokelberg ralf.bokelberg@ gmail.com
Flex Flash Consultant based in Cologne/Germany
Phone +49 (0) 221 530 15 35
!--
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[flexcoders] Charting Wildly Varying Numbers in Flex
I have an interesting issue with a mini charting application I am trying to create. You can see my current attempt here: http://ibiseye.com/?stormID=AT200403active=1season=2004wind=145name=Charleyzoom=5lat=26.3lng=-71.050001 and click Charley Synopsis Basically, we are using hurricane wind-fields and a giant database of all the property parcels in the state of Florida to calculate how much property value was at risk during a given hurricane (this is live during the season if a storm is forecasted or does go over Florida). The problem is that the numbers are exceptionally varying in range. If you look at the bars on that Flex Chart you'll notice we are using the Logarithmic scale . The reason we had to do this is that the all data (or even the data within the different categories if the 'all' data is removed) is usually hugely different in value. This difference is exasperated by differences in property types. What happens is you end up with a chart where the bars are barely visible for a number of the property types (which are even less visible if the chart is not scaled logarithmically for the all category). If you mouse over the current chart values, you'll get the actual dollar value of each bar. It's easy to see (especially in the Residential type) just how misleading the chart could be. They look almost the same, but the blue bar is actually 5x greater than the red one. Has anyone run into this issue before and do you all have any good ideas of how to get around it? Right now I'm not really even looking for code, but more of any creative solutions to displaying that information in a way that isn't misleading (which the current scale may be -- you have to remember how many old people live in Florida). Thanks for any insight, Charlie
