[OpenSpending] Interesting budget visualisations from around the globe

Thu Jun 7 10:33:13 UTC 2012

Hi Lucy, I see Simon and John have added the Australian budget to the show 
and tell here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2012/jun/06/australia-budget-spending-interactive

Sadly the comments on twitter and on the post itself don't really give an 
insight into how people understand it.

My first thought is that the figure for the actual spending in the right 
hand side pannel needs to be bold when the '11-12 Actual' button is 
selected. Similarly the budget figure needs to be bold when the '12-13 
Budget' is selected.

Then I'm not convinced this diagram is suitable for hierarchical data. 
The inner layer shows the top categories of spending or budgets as 
essentially a pie chart. The outer layers add a more detailed breakdown of 
these top categories, but the collective size of this detail is greater 
than the area represented in the inner layer. Personally I find that a bit 
confusing. What do you think?

Lisa

On Tue, 5 Jun 2012, Lucy Chambers wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> Over the weekend, we've been sent some very interesting budget
> visualisations to have a look at - I thought a couple of them may be
> of interest to the list. Both display hierarchical information clearly
> without the need to drill down.
>
> The first is the product of the OpenData.Ch Camp:
>
> http://t.preus.se/bernbudget2012/
>
> The second is 'Where are my Taxes Going?' from Australia. Notice the
> comparison planned/actual, quite elegant.
>
> http://theopenbudget.org/
>
> We're still hunting examples of people who are building great
> visualisations and for your thoughts on how effective they are at
> conveying information! Let us know any thoughts,
>
> Lucy
>
>
>
>