Makeover Monday: Bermuda Population Growth

Following on from last week’s discussion about Makeover Monday and what might be keeping people from participating, Andy and I are committing ourselves to keeping our visualisations simple and quick. The data set provided this week has A LOT of census information included, but I focused on the data from the original post. Here’s the original from Rhiannon Fox, a graphic designed based in Bermuda.

I spoke to Rhiannon about her work and I’m hoping she becomes part of our teaching curriculum at the Data School. She’s very excited to see what everyone comes up with.

What works well?

• I love the colors
  
• Simple, small multiples layout
  
• Great fonts
  
• Great labeling
  
• Consistent use of shapes for the unit charts
  
• Neatly organized in a Z-pattern from oldest to most recent
  
• Population growth is easy to see
  

What doesn’t work well?

• A unit chart sacrifices accuracy for engagement.
  
• The overall pattern is harder to see than it needs to be.
  
• It’s too difficult to compare females from year to year.
  

Given what I like and don’t like, and sticking to the one hour time limit, I decided to go with a diverging bar chart, also known as a back-to-back bar chart or a bikini chart or a population pyramid.