Want to get a visual version of BBC iPlayer use? Try this
From CXO, an online magazine for chief execs and other "chief" things, comes this rather wonderful graphic. Small version here, but click it for the large one.
There's also an interview with John Linwood, the BBC's chief technology officer, by CXO.
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wowser808 30 Nov 2009, 10:28PM
Lovely, it's like the Times Labs.One day all news stories will be in pie chart/venn/chart format.
BrotherLogic 30 Nov 2009, 11:51PM
Yes - one day all information will be pretty but unreadable.
xiaosi 1 Dec 2009, 12:26AM
I'm sure I'm being baited but I just can't help myself: those 'beautiful' pink discs are actually way misleading.
Take a look at 'how the iplayer is being used' section. Does the disc representing 7% look around a tenth the size of the one representing 85%?
No?
area = pi * radius squared
Ignore the squaring and you are off by a clear order of magnitude in this case.
Google Charts can show you how it should look - as if you even care.
I guess the arty kids were too busy doodling in the back of their maths books to pay attention.
*pushes his NHS specs up, puts his graphical calculator away and waddles off*
tigerdraught 1 Dec 2009, 8:59AM
I agree. Some of those circle sizes are way off.
boombox 1 Dec 2009, 3:29PM
Want to get a visual version of BBC iPlayer use?
Is it "Speak Like Mercedes Bunz" Day?
Ashley5 2 Dec 2009, 10:45PM
Take a look at 'how the iplayer is being used' section. Does the disc representing 7% look around a tenth the size of the one representing 85%?
No?
area = pi * radius squared
Ignore the squaring and you are off by a clear order of magnitude in this case.
hey xiasi i couldn't help but notice the mistake you have made about the circle sizes. you are correct in saying that the area of a circle is pi x radius squared but in this case they have just changed the radius. as you can see the 7% circle looks as though it would fit just over 10 times across the 85% circle.
xiaosi 3 Dec 2009, 11:43AM
@Ashley5
Yeah, I'd noticed they'd done exactly that -- and it's misleading. The classic How To Lie With Statistics (chapter 6) by Darrell Huff tells you all about the dangers of representing values with 2D images.
The point is that the eye will naturally judge the relative sizes of the values by the area of the circles and not their radius. When the differences are biggish, e.g. comparing 85% to 7% then we are looking at a difference between:
7 / 85 = 8.2%
and
7^2 / 85^2 = 0.7%
i.e, a difference of over 10 times.
*puts the slide rule away and buggers off*
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