Pie Map Chart - Acute A and B viral hepatitis in the US

Visual Design
#1

Hi, as a part of my module Data Visualisation I was tasked to prepare a visualisation of Tychoo dataset. I am a Software Engineering student at Swansea University.

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DOI: 10.25337/T7/ptycho.v2.0/US.25102003 and 10.25337/T7/ptycho.v2.0/US.76795007
Visual Design Type: Pie Map Chart
Name of Tool: Tableau
Country: United States
Diseases: Acute type A viral hepatitis, Acute type B viral hepatitis
Year: 2001-2017

Visual Mappings:

Colour intensity represents the relative total count of both diseases for each of the state. The deeper colour, the more cases there were in total in a given state. The pie chart mapped to each of the state represents the share of the diseases.

Description: This pie map chart visualises the occurrence of acute type A and B viral hepatitis in the United States, comparing share of each of the disease type.

Unique Observation:
It can be observed that southern states had a noticeably higher number of cases than the northern states. California and Florida had the largest number of incidents, when South Dakota had the smallest number of cases. It can be also seen that acute hepatitis type B was dominating in the south-east part of the United States, when type A was dominant in the north-east.

Data Preparation:
To prepare the data, I had to decide to choose and visualise relevant information. I have combined datasets for acute type A and B viral hepatitis. Then, for each of the state, I summed them up and then calculated the share of each of the disease in the total number of cases for each of the state.

Question:
I am wondering how I could emphasise the prevalence of a given disease compared to the other in a more approachable way than a pie chart?

Kind regards,
Marcin Kolber

#2

Hello elmarko1,

I like the idea of your visualization. What I would suggest is improving colouring. You could try including some intermediate colours which would better emphasize the total number of cases per state. You can see that the states in the Mid-West region are not separated clearly. This can easily be done by introducing your personal colour palette. Tutorial on how to do it:

https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/formatting_create_custom_colors.htm

One more thing would be to include your colour scaling in a legend. Additionally, since you are considering two types of hepatitis, you can experiment and convert your current visualization into a treemap showing of the hierarchy between the diseases.

Kristiyan Vladimirov

#3

Hi,
You could use colours to display a ratio between those two diseases, then use bubbles for displaying the size. Or you could possibly keep the colours of the state but use colourful bubbles to indicate the ratio of the diseases.

#4

Greetings El Marko,

I’ve found your visualisation extremely interesting, especially the chart for the Maine state which resembles Pac-Man.
Do you think that’s a coincidence?
Could Pac-Man from Montana also play a part in this conspiracy?
I hope that you can answer my questions.

However, to answer your question. I would suggest using dots to emphasise the prevalence of a given disease compared to the other.

Till we meet again,
Hoosier Daddy