Telling stories with data assignment2

This page is for the dita visualization for assignment 2.

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Part 1: Working with web-based visualization tools and data

General government debt-to-GDP ratio measures the gross debt of the general government as a percentage of GDP. It is a key indicator for the sustainability of government finance. Debt is calculated as the sum of the following liability categories (as applicable): currency and deposits; debt securities, loans; insurance, pensions and standardised guarantee schemes, and other accounts payable. Changes in government debt over time primarily reflect the impact of past government deficits.

Part 2: Working with RAWGraphs

Beeswarm Plot

Beeswarm Plot Color Version

Area Graph

Different method for the data visualization

• Comparision
  1. The first one is a bar chart, which could show the general debt in a specific year. In this chart is the data in 2018. The second type is a beeswarm plot and it chould show the general debt of each country from 1996 to 2018. The third type is the area graph, which chould show the general debt of each country from 1996 to 2018 as well.
  2. The bar chart could only show the general debt of each country in a specific year but fail to show the change and comparisons between years. The beeswarm use the size of dot to illustrate the amount of the general debt of each country in each year, which is quite clear. Compared with the beeswarm plot, area graph could make the reader know the change between years consistently.
  3. The bar chart use just two colors, and user could choose to highlight the data from several countries via making it red. The black-white beeswarm plot could show the quantity difference but fails to distingush different countrys that the color version does. The area graph could both show the change through time and distingush the difference amoung countires.
• Reason for the third chart

First, the area chart can distinguish different countries by color, just like the second chart.

Secondly, it can also show the amount of debt by the width of the bar. At the same time, the area map is continuous in time and can show the changes in the general debt of each country.

In addition, with regard to color, countries with more national debts use warm colors to represent, and data of less national debts are represented with cool colors. This choice is also in line with readers’ logic.

Contributing

The tool used for the visualization RAWGraphs Data source OECD Data