Viewer's Choice - China Global Investment Tracker

Post date: Dec 3, 2012 5:07:46 PM

What we visualize

China Global Investment Tracker is a visualization created by The Heritage Foundation that focus on China's oversea investments. It can be found here: http://www.heritage.org/research/projects/china-global-investment-tracker-interactive-map

The data set used by this visualization is collected by The Heritage Foundation itself. The original data set can be downloaded in the visualization page or at the end of this page.

Data contains all large investments and contracts from companies in China to other part of the world, both successful or troubled, from 2005 to 2012 (Jan - June). It includes details for almost 500 attempted transactions -- failed and successful -- over $100 million in all industries, including energy, mining, transportation and banking.

[Dataset 3. Troubled Transactions]

Where we start

[Click to only show data for an industry. e.g. Metals]

Why we love ... and hate

Pros

• • It has raw data

This Foundation provided visiters with the raw data used in this visualization and gave a link to download it in a very obvious place of the page.

• • It categorizes and focus well

The data set has been well categorized into 8 industries that are most important for them and for potential users of it, and put all other. As doing research in the raw data, I don't think category 'Other' only represents 'Unknown', in fact 'Other' includes industries such as Entertainment, Food, etc.

• • It maps investment by size

This visualization allows user to see directly the general difference in investment amount between all countries by mapping the value to the size of the circle. There might have debate about if this is the best way to map values, but at least it is doing something helpful to the user.

• • It is clear

The colors this visualization used are well selected. None of them is not clear above the background colors (maybe except the yellow color used by Agriculture). All colors have a mid range Saturation value, not hurting user's eyes.

• • It is in good shape

Since this visualization is designed on a special platform, webpage, it have to be compact. We can see that when looking at the data for Australia, investment in Metals is a very high bar. But it doesn't overlap any continent in the map, instead, this bar is exactly in between South America and Africa. I dont' think this is a coincidence, it must come from designer's special design. As we check all the different filters we can add, other bars also never overlap continent and very close to continents when reaching maximum value.

Cons

• • It is overwhelming

This problem is mainly when investigating overall investment data with no industry filter selected. We can see from the screen shot below, that the circles overlap a lot. This makes it difficult for user to figure out the situation in the areas that overlap happens a lot.

I think if the visualization had used another way to interpret 'amount' information in the map, such as using good gradient colors to map the values.

• • It is not considerate

Some countries are too small to be easily selected by mouse. I would like it to add a list or search box to let users choose a specific country more easily.

• • It's not accurate

Some parts of the visualization, the bar chart in the lower left area for instance, are not accurate enough. Since it uses a small rectangle as unit and shows the values by number of rectangles aligned vertically, it is 1) not telling users the accurate value; 2) not straightforward for user to even get the approximate number the bar chart is showing. (Only way to get the idea of the approximate value is to count the rectangles)

It is enough in the purpose of showing general trends, and it maybe not necessary to show the data in a more accurate manner (especially when the data itself is only approximate value of investments and contracts), but one thing that is sure is that user need to count the rectangles one by one.

• • It's not obvious

The unit represented by per rectangle in bar chart changes as country changes, but the number is hiding in the corner, not obvious to see.

What we hope

Besides improving in above aspects that we don't really like in this visualization, there are also some other aspects that we don't see as a disadvantages but if being added, the world will be a better place.

• • List of investments

I'd like to see related investment or contract when I select a filter (e.g. all industries or one industry of a certain country). This always helps user have a deeper understanding of those money usage, especially for a country as special as China. How much investment is from company that owned by government? How much is from private owned companies? These questions are interesting.

If concerned about overwhelming, detail information can be accessed by interaction with interface, such as a button or a checkbox, rather than showing them directly and all the time.

• • Comparison between countries

Currently, the visualization can show data of one country at a time, I really hope it can let user compare at least two countries at the same time.