[OpenSpending] Interesting budget visualisations from around the globe

Mon Jun 11 09:48:06 UTC 2012

Hi Lisa,

> 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?

The age old problem of area versus lengths and yes, I agree that the
slivers would make more sense if there was a drill down and they got
progressively smaller. I think a key for the colours could also be
helpful as otherwise it is very difficult to work out what is meant by
them!

> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>

-- 
Lucy Chambers
Community Coordinator,
OpenSpending & Data Journalism
Open Knowledge Foundation
Skype: lucyfediachambers
Twitter: @lucyfedia