Zhongshan Zhu

1)

Obvious flaws in this graph are it's (pointless) use of 3D and color. The unnecessary use of 3D only makes the graph harder to read. Columns are overlapping each other helping obstruct our view. The tilt of the 3D model also obstructs our view and doesn't allow us to easily see the grid marks. The slanted view obstructs our judgement of the size of the objects (ex. two bars may have the same y-value but it can be hard to tell). It is also hard to read the x and y axis labels. Specifically, it is hard to exactly line up the x axis values to their bars and for us to properly use the y axis value to measure. The y-axis' label (the word percent colonization) is also vertically oriented which can make it hard to read (putting unnecessary strain on the viewer). The graph also has way too much color. The color can be quite distracting and doesn't really add anything to the chart. Few (I read an extra bit on his site) has also mentioned that the idea of using a black background with a white labels is outdated (that this convention was used to help old monitors see more clearly) and that a white background would be way less distracting.

Something good that this chart did is that it chose to use a bar graph to make a nominal comparison. They also assigned the categories to the x axis which is also a positive. The chart also followed only had 10 grid marks as suggested by Few (Few stated 5-10). A data table is probably not needed for this relatively simple visualization. The chart did a good job of choosing how to encode its data. Their only flaws were related specifically to design scheme with regards to readability and design.

2) The quiz was pretty straight forward.

I have completed the graded portion BEFORE looking at anyone else's work on this assignment. Zhongshan Zhu.