Since the death of Archimedes, everyone knows that drawing circles brings nothing but trouble. JP Morgan shows us why ... as if it didn’t have enough problems already.

Today we’ll discuss another important rule in designing graphics. You CAN chop line charts because they should visualize the largest possible differences.

This blog makes regular pleas for maximum information density. And newspapers offer many great examples. Now, FAZ is further improving its density – to cut costs – and is starting to use graphical [...]

What "perceptive priority" is, which design rules we can learn from it, and how it can protect us from botching our next presentation of numbers.

This blog is for the pie haters out there. If you have a sensitive stomach, please read with caution! Nothing but pies and one is worse than the next. This time, with examples from FTD, Handelsblatt [...]

After plenty of goose, duck and gingerbread, here’s something else to chew on. The pies have got to go! Warning: This blog is nothing for those with weak stomachs.

If you don’t have much to say, you don’t need to use a whole bunch of words – or cups for that matter. An example from the German magazine ‘Wirtschaftswoche’ shows us why.

Right now, it’s pretty safe to be a pirate – even though navies around the world are already sharpening their grappling hooks. As far as reporting is concerned, it also pays to be a buccaneer … [...]

Some people think that numbers people read data differently than graphics people. Is that true? Does this sub-division of the homo numericus really exist? And if so, do we need to present information [...]

To read management information correctly, you often need good visual judgment. Take the test and see how you rate!

Stacked, pie and area charts are very common, yet very useless in management reports, presentations and mass media alike. Bars can add meaning…but only if they show variances instead of raw data.

In Part I, we reviewed Bella’s law of proportionality, measured it with the lie factor, and tried to save the world through standardization. Today, we will tame the tiger for good.

Some people place logarithmic scales on the same level as rabid tigers. Without them, however, every second chart would have the wrong scale. In part one of this two-part series, we will show how you [...]

You can find time series comparisons in almost every newspaper, business journal and political magazine. Although they are frequently used in the media, these charts can be very misleading. What you should [...]

Last time, we piled up the arguments against stacked charts. Today, we will show a better way to compare components using graphical tables and reference bars.

People often use stacked charts to compare components - but the effect rarely works. Learn why that is and what alternatives are available.

We have already bid our farewell to business charts. Now, it’s time to say goodbye to "decograms". Why? Some recent examples from publications like Spiegel and Focus give us enough good reasons.

Do we really live in an information society? I don’t think so. Information is as rare - and disinformation, lies and overall sloppiness are more rampant – than ever before!

If you are comfortable enough with presenting data in tables and charts, the next challenge is putting that information into words. The way that Peter Singer backs his positions is an excellent example [...]

Numbers are an aspect of reports. If you don’t understand the background, however, they fall short of their purpose. For Audi and Peugeot, it’s the same story tomorrow in Le Mans.

Traffic lights in charts are junk. They portray the world in black or white – just using red and green instead. Because they use a bit of threshold voodoo, some people consider them to be an “intellectual” [...]

Germany’s Bundesliga soccer season is officially over. Bayern Munich remains the record champion; their local rivals in Nuremberg have also won a record - as the most relegated team. Our graphical review [...]

The KPIs that managers need to drive their business are nothing more than numbers. Speed is measured in numbers, too. That’s why professional pilots only use digital (and not analog) speedometers.

Automation is the key to efficient reporting. Forget control robots or Artificial Intelligence – all you need is common sense and just a bit of programming. I have already made my plea for industrial [...]

Condensed values often conceal the truth. While reading my favorite newspaper over Sunday morning breakfast, I recently witnessed how deceiving a simple average can be. It’s enough to lose your appetite! [...]

Yet another bank in crisis. Do companies need some type of Mission Control Center to protect them from the ominous black holes of today’s global market space?

Graphical elements are supposed to focus your attention on what is important. What they actually show, however, is often misleading. How can you avoid embarrassing mistakes? For starters, just steer clear [...]