My name is Harley Ellenberger. But on this blog I'll assume the name of the Bar Chart Guy.
To start, a bit about me. First of all, I wouldn't describe myself as a very creative person. My drawing skills are limited to stick figures and the rough, boxy sketches that I use to plan out my dataviz work. Power Point is my tool of choice for lumping together the limited graphic design elements that I use in my work. Oh, and I'm color blind.
But what I lack in the creativity area, I make up for with my right brain traits. I've always been pretty good with numbers (but by no means am I a mathematician). As a kid, I had an elaborate ranking system for my baseball card collection. I had all of my best cards ranked (on graph paper) by their value, and when I'd trade or acquire new cards I'd start a new sheet. I didn't plot the values using the length of a bar, but it was a good way of keeping track of my most valuable cards.
So, I like numbers, I can draw lines and boxes, and I have trouble seeing variations in color. It's not a coincidence then that my go to chart is the bar chart. They play exactly to all of my strengths.
But what I lack in the creativity area, I make up for with my right brain traits. I've always been pretty good with numbers (but by no means am I a mathematician). As a kid, I had an elaborate ranking system for my baseball card collection. I had all of my best cards ranked (on graph paper) by their value, and when I'd trade or acquire new cards I'd start a new sheet. I didn't plot the values using the length of a bar, but it was a good way of keeping track of my most valuable cards.
So, I like numbers, I can draw lines and boxes, and I have trouble seeing variations in color. It's not a coincidence then that my go to chart is the bar chart. They play exactly to all of my strengths.
I've designed hundreds of different interactive charts and dashboards both for fun and for my job. And I'll bet that nearly every one of those included a bar chart of some type. I'll mix it up from time to time - maybe throw in stacked bar chart here or a divergent stacked bar chart there. Call them what you like, the premise is the same.
Show me a pie chart and I'll turn it into a bar chart. Give me a scatter plot and I'll reshape it into a bar chart. Give me a poorly designed bar chart and I'll turn it into an effectively designed bar chart. If a bar chart fits the bill, then a bar chart it will be.
On this blog, I'll be taking different visuals that I find on the web and redoing them as bar charts. I'll list the original sources of the visuals and data that I use. And I'll show my makeover of the original along with an explanation of why I think a bar chart is the appropriate choice.
On this blog, I'll be taking different visuals that I find on the web and redoing them as bar charts. I'll list the original sources of the visuals and data that I use. And I'll show my makeover of the original along with an explanation of why I think a bar chart is the appropriate choice.
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