Step one: choose a data visualization from MakeoverMonday

Breakfast Cereals: Healthy or Unhealthy?

Source: https://data.world/makeovermonday/2020w36

Original visualization

Source: “2020/W36: Calories and Sugar in Cereals - Dataset by Makeovermonday.”

Step two: critique the data visualization

Insights from the critique method

Usefulness:

In my opinion, the charts aren’t too useful to the intended audience. Let’s understand this. The topic of discussion for Makeover Monday is “Breakfast Cereals: Healthy or Unhealthy?” This aims to address a broader audience nationwide who are unaware of the nutritional composition of the breakfast cereals. Depicting only the top 10 cereals with the most sugars and calories compels the audience to believe that cereals are unhealthy.

Do you think the information is of any use to audiences who do not consume any of those 10 cereals? No, right? As mentioned in the Data Visualization Effectiveness Profile, “We want to provide information that is useful. If it isn’t useful, it isn’t important. A visualization can be eloquent in every way, but if it communicates information that is of no value, it is ineffective.” (Few, Stephen. Data Visualization Effectiveness Profile. 2017). As an audience, I want to know if the cereal I eat is healthy or unhealthy. If unhealthy, give me options to choose the best cereals that have low sugars and calories so that I can switch to a healthier option.

Completeness:

I believe the charts fail to provide all the information needed for a better level of understanding. The Data Visualization Effectiveness Profile talks about all the context required to understand the information, which can come as a comparison of the depicted values in the chart with other values. (Few, Stephen. Data Visualization Effectiveness Profile. 2017.)

The charts provided the value of sugars; it doesn’t mention the units in the chart, but I believe it would be grams. But, how did the designer of the chart adjudge that the cereals with a particular amount of sugars and calories are unhealthy? I would love to see data from a valid hospital website or health platform that shows what the recommended daily values of protein and calories in breakfast are.

Perceptibility:

The charts make it difficult for a reader to comprehend information with minimal effort. To start, the title is misspelled. What on earth could “Cealeoles” mean? (I am still thinking…Wait, I have other things to do…Haha). The bubble chart, which shows the top ten cereals with the most calories, is hard to distinguish based on the size of each bubble. Most of the bubbles look the same size to me. The use of different colors also adds visual strain to the eyes and adds no value in comparison. The bar charts do sort the top 10 cereals with the most sugar, but I can’t see the units of sugars. The use of two different colors makes no sense for comparison. It would be more appropriate to use the same color to compare just the top 10 cereals.

The Calories vs. Sugars chart scares me, honestly. I have to spend hours figuring out what the different signs mean. There is no legend that distinguishes the shapes, which is too much of an effort.

Truthfulness:

The chart is truthful to some extent. The bars are sorted in order, and it doesn’t differ in width and accurately sorts sugar values lengthwise. The bubble chart, however, doesn’t accurately differentiate the cereals based on the size and color parameters. Calories vs. Sugar have a direct relation, so this representation is valid.

##Intuitiveness: I believe the bubble chart and bar chart are very familiar to a large audience. The maker of the charts tried to make the representation intuitive but failed by adding a range of colors and similar sizes. The same applies to the bar charts. Calories vs. Sugars with multiple shapes would have been more intuitive if there were fewer variables (cereals). The superimposition of shapes over each other with the absence of units and legends makes the chart less intuitive.

Aesthetics:

To be honest, I don’t think the charts are interesting/enjoyable to look at. I get the concept that since the bubble chart and bar chart have only one variable, that is calories and sugars, respectively. However, a better representation in terms of color choice like a solid color with different shades would be more pleasing. For the charts with different shapes, I would lose my attention in just a few seconds. There is way too much visual clutter, which would be a wasted effort if you try getting a gist of it.

I would place the Calories vs. Sugars on the ugly side and the other charts somewhere between ugly and pleasing to the eye. In conclusion, these are not good examples of data visualization.

Engagement:

The engagement depends on the audience who is reading the charts. If there is any audience who consumes cereal from the mentioned brands, they will be eager to understand the composition of the nutritional aspects. For the audience who consumes cereals from other brands, they have to put in extra effort to learn more about the topic. It won’t inspire them, to be honest. However, a few health enthusiasts who are really concerned about their nutritional intakes can find it inspiring.

I was inspired by the information and researched more on this topic. I came to know that cereals are heavily processed before they are made available. I stopped consuming cereals and switched to better and healthier alternatives.

Step three: sketch out a solution

Creating a wireframe following the critique method and the seven parameters

Step four: Test the solution

Feedback 1 (student mid 30’s)

What comes to your mind when you see the sketches? That has to do with the fact that most people believe that cereals are healthy, but they are actually not. They contain a lot of sugar on them. That’s why I have just raw oaks for breakfast and my friends buy all the sugar breakfasts.

What do you think is this intended for? Sugar awareness.

How easy/difficult was it to comprehend the sketches? I don’t understand your handwriting that well, however, I handled it.

Who do you think is the targeted audience? People with less time to think about what to prepare for breakfast.

Do you think these sketches will be well received by the audience? They will like them if you put enough effort into them. Try using the original logos, so they can relate.

Would changes would you have made to make the understanding easier? Instead of bar charts, you could use a comparison of the amount of sugar cereals have, with actual spoons of sugar, and show the equivalence of spoons of sugar, so people can relate it better.

Feedback 2 (student mid 20’s)

What comes to your mind when you see the sketches? Comparing various components in breakfast cereals in the United States.

What do you think is this intended for? Comparison of healthier breakfast options.

How easy/difficult was it to comprehend the sketches? Too much data makes it difficult to understand. Remove protein, fiber, vitamins & minerals.

Who do you think is the targeted audience? Families, and individuals who want to have healthier breakfasts.

Do you think these sketches will be well received by the audience? You should remove extra information to be better received by the audience.

Would changes would you have made to make the understanding easier? Comparison with recommended value can be put in one chart. Use logos of cereal brands. Instead of shades of lines inside bars, you can use contrasting colors for comparison.

Insights from feedback

There is too much data in my visualization. From the feedback, it is clear that my test audience was looking for the exact component that made the breakfast cereal unhealthy. While interviewing, I was brought to notice that cereals are a good source of carbohydrates, not protein. What is the point of comparing protein in cereals as a component when it is adding less or no value? I have to make the visualization more appealing by adding labels of brands or components like sugar or equivalence of spoons. I need to make it more relatable for a better audience. I got positive feedback on assigning separate visualizations to rank sugar, calories, and overall ratings to make it easier for readers to choose a healthier cereal option.

Step five: Build your solution

My Visualization

Summary

I learned that the basic idea of the visualization was well received by the audience. However, I need to remove the extra information I was trying to put in the visualization to make it look more informative. I was asked to remove the extra nutritional components to avoid visual clutter. I decided to keep only sugars and calories in my visualization. The idea of comparing the recommended values and the actual values in the same graph was very interesting. I was also asked to make it more appealing by adding logos of cereal brands. This was a really good idea, but there are more than 50 cereal brands. Adding a logo for every brand would be very difficult.

Instead of using shades of lines in the bar graph, I will be choosing a solid color and comparing it with the recommended values of another color. Earlier I was using grey color for my recommended bar but it didn’t give a contrasting or comparison intuition. So I changed the color to orange. I did this because when sugar comes to mind, I think of juices, candies, and orange color gives me an impression of sweetness. I have used a blue color to make it contrast with the recommended values. Another reason for choosing the colors was, while going through study materials and other resources I came across comparison graphs that had similar colors. Thinking about the axis was a bit tricky. If you notice values of calories are much higher than the grams of sugar, so I used a logarithmic axis to better represent values.

Initially, I tried to use a Bubble chart and Treemap to compare calories. When I created the visualization in a sheet, the labels were correctly visible. I also kept the color of the bubble yellowish brown to match the color of the flakes which is common in cereals. However, when I added the sheet to the dashboard, all the labels disappeared. I discussed with my Professor on use of a Bubble chart and cautions on when to use it. I came to a conclusion that since there were more data variables and also due to missing labels, I had to remove them. I chose a bar chart because it is easier to compare the data side by side in bar graphs. I made the visualization interactive by adding a drop-down button. Unlike the original visualization. I didn’t want to limit my data only to the top 10 cereal brands. I also wanted to add information on individual rankings of the cereals based on sugar content, calorie content, and overall rating. I have created separate scrollable bars for the individual rankings. I have added the recommended values in the bars to make it easier to compare with the actual values.

I did put thought into choosing the title and subtitle to pose a question and draw users’ attention while hinting at what the chart is all about at the same time. In conclusion, now the readers will be able to easily comprehend and gain insights into all the cereal brands and make a choice on the best-ranked brands.

Stay healthy, Stay fit!

References

“2020/W36: Calories and Sugar in Cereals - Dataset by Makeovermonday.” Data.World, https://data.world/makeovermonday/2020w36. Accessed 6 Feb. 2024.
Few, Stephen. Data Visualization Effectiveness Profile. 2017.

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