Cover not available
Article published In:
Information Design Journal
Vol. 25:2 (2019) ► pp.192–213

Pervasive and perplexing pies

Our evolving relationship with a data display genre

| Iowa State University

Although pie charts remain a highly popular genre for visualizing data, evident partly by their continued use in corporate annual reports, designers and theorists and have long critiqued and even denigrated them. This conflicted relationship with pie charts has resulted largely from their paucity of data, labeling difficulties, and perceptual weaknesses. Like many primary data design genres, however, pie charts attained their conventional status as a result of a long evolutionary process, initiated in the later nineteenth century by experimentation, hybrid forms, and data-rich designs. After the subsequent simplification and minimizing effects of twentieth-century modernism, pie charts have begun to experience a reemergence of innovation with digital data design, which has reintroduced hybridity into pie charts, vastly enlarged their data domain, and addressed at least some of their perceived weaknesses.

Keywords: data visualization, visual rhetoric, pie charts, charts and graphs, annual reports
Article outline
  • 1.Circular forms: From nature to design
  • 2.Form and function: The geometry of pies
  • 3.Genre resilience: The ongoing popularity of pie charts
  • 4.Charts under duress: The denigration of pies
  • 5.Historical perspective: Early innovations with pies
    • 5.1Multi-tasking pies and hybrids
    • 5.2Victorian profusion of pies and sectors
  • 6.Simplified pies: Design in the age of modernism
  • 7.Re-emergence of a genre: The new-wave of digital & hybrid pies
  • 8.Conclusion: Prospects for pie charts
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 July 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.25.2.04kos
References
Arnheim, R.
(1969) Visual thinking. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Barton, B. F., & Barton, M. S.
(1993) Modes of power in technical and professional visuals. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 7(1), 138–162. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bazerman, C.
(1988) Shaping written knowledge: The genre and activity of the experimental article in science. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Beattie, V., Dhanani, A., & Jones, M. J.
(2008) Investigating presentational change in U.K. annual reports: A longitudinal perspective. International Journal of Business Communication, 45(2), 181–222. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bertin, J.
(1981) Graphics and graphic information-processing. (W. J. Berg & P. Scott. Trans.). New York, NY: Walter De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Biderman, A. D.
(1990) The Playfair enigma: The development of the schematic representation of statistics. Information Design Journal, 6(1), 3–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brasseur, L.
(2005) Florence Nightingale’s visual rhetoric in the rose diagrams. Technical Communication Quarterly, 14(2), 161–182. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brinton, W. C.
(1914) Graphic methods for presenting facts. New York, NY: Engineering Magazine Co.Google Scholar
(1939) Graphic presentation. New York, NY: Brinton Associates.Google Scholar
Burke, E.
(1967) A Philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful (2nd ed.). J. T. Boulton (Ed.). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. (Original work published 1759)Google Scholar
Campos, C. A. R.
(1941) Atlas estatístico do Brasil. [Charts and maps]. Rio de Janeiro: Departamento Nacional do Café.Google Scholar
Census Office of the Philippine Islands Census Office of the Philippine Islands
(1920) Census of the Philippine Islands, taken under the direction of the Philippine Legislature in the year 1918. Vol. 1. Geography, history, and climatology. Manila: Census Office of the Philippine IslandsCensus Office of the Philippine Islands; Bureau of Printing.Google Scholar
Cleveland, W. S., & McGill, R.
(1984) Graphic perception: Theory, experimentation, and application to the development of graphical methods. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 79(387), 531–554. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cochran, J. K., Albrecht, S. A., & Green, Y. A.
(1989) Guidelines for evaluating graphical designs: A framework based on human perception skills. Technical Communication, 36(1), 25–32.Google Scholar
Czebotar, J.
(2015) Jehiah 14 personal annual report [Interactive charts]. Retrieved from [URL]
Desnoyers, L.
(2011) Toward a taxonomy of visuals in science communication. Technical Communication, 58(2), 119–134.Google Scholar
Donnant, D. F.
(1805) Statistical account of the United States of America. (W. Playfair. Illust. & Trans.). [Chart]. London: J. Whiting.Google Scholar
Dragga, S., & Voss, D.
(2001) Cruel pies: The inhumanity of technical illustrations. Technical Communication, 48(3), 265–274.Google Scholar
Emerson, R. W.
(1883) Circles. In Essays: First and second series. Vol. 11 (pp. 279–300). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Ervin, C. W.
(2011) Pie charts in financial communications. Information Design Journal, 19(3), 205–215. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Few, S.
(2012) Show me the numbers: Designing tables and graphs to enlighten (2nd ed.). Burlingame, CA: Analytics Press.Google Scholar
Friendly, M.
(2008) The golden age of statistical graphics. Statistical Science, 23(4), 502–535. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Friendly, M., & Denis, D. J.
(2001) Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, statistical graphics, and data visualization. [Interactive website]. Web document. Retrieved from [URL]
Frownfelter-Lohrke, C., & Fulkerson, C. L.
(2001) The incidence and quality of graphics in annual reports: An international comparison. International Journal of Business Communication, 38(3), 337–358. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fry, B., Fathom Information Design, & National Geographic
(2018) What the world eats. [Interactive charts]. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society. Retrieved from [URL]
Funkhouser, H. G.
(1937) Historical development of the graphical representation of statistical data. Osiris, 31, 269–404. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gannett, H., & the United States Census Office
(1898) Statistical atlas of the United States, based upon results of the eleventh census. [Charts and maps]. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Retrieved from the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division website: [URL]
Harris, R. L.
(1996) Information graphics: A comprehensive illustrated reference. Atlanta, GA: Management Graphics.Google Scholar
Heer, J., & Bostock, M.
(2010) Crowdsourcing graphical perception: Using mechanical turk to assess visualization design. CHI ’10: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 203–212). New York, NY: ACI Digital Library. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hickmann, A. L.
(1902) Geographisch-statistischer universaltaschen-atlas. [Charts and maps]. Vienna: G. Freytag and Berndt. Retrieved from the Hathi Trust: [URL]
Hopkins, A. A., & Bond, A. R.
(1913) Scientific American reference book: Edition of 1913. New York, NY: Munn & Co.Google Scholar
Iowa State University Office of Institutional Research
(2019) 2018–19 Iowa State University fact book. [Charts and tables]. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Office of Institutional Research. Retrieved from [URL]
Karsten, K. G.
(1923) Charts and graphs: An introduction to graphic methods in the control and analysis of statistics. New York, NY: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Kostelnick, C.
(2004) Melting-pot ideology, modernist aesthetics, and the emergence of graphical conventions: The Statistical Atlases of the United States, 1874–1925. In C. A. Hill & M. Helmers (Eds.), Defining visual rhetorics (pp. 215–242). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
(2008) The visual rhetoric of data displays: The conundrum of clarity. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 51(1), 116–130. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2016a) Mosaics, culture, and rhetorical resiliency: The convoluted genealogy of a data display genre. In M. Kimball & C. Kostelnick (Eds.), Visible numbers: Essays on the history of statistical graphics (pp. 177–206). Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
(2016b) The re-emergence of emotional appeals in interactive data visualization. Technical Communication, 63(2), 116–135.Google Scholar
Kostelnick, C., & Hassett, M.
(2003) Shaping information: The rhetoric of visual conventions. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Macdonald-Ross, M.
(1977) How numbers are shown: A review of research on the presentation of quantitative data in texts. Audio-Visual Communication Review, 25(4), 359–409.Google Scholar
Miller, C. R.
(1984) Genre as social action. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70(2), 151–167. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Minard, C. J.
(1885) Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l’Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812–1813. [Chart]. In E. J. Marey. La méthode graphique dans les sciences expérimentales et principalement en physiologie et en médecine (p. 72, Figure 37). Paris: G. Masson.Google Scholar
Ministère des Travaux Publics
(1881–1885) Album de statistique graphique. [Charts and maps]. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale. Retrieved from the Hathi Trust Digital Library: [URL]
Penrose, J. M.
(2008) Annual report graphic use: A review of the literature. International Journal of Business Communication, 45(2), 158–180. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Playfair, W.
(1801a) The commercial and political atlas, representing, by means of stained copper-plate charts, the progress of the commerce, revenues, expenditure, and debts of England, during the whole of the eighteenth century (3rd ed.). London: T. Burton.Google Scholar
(1801b) The statistical breviary; shewing, on a principle entirely new, the resources of every state and kingdom in Europe. London: J. Wallis.Google Scholar
Rawlins, J. D., & Wilson, G. D.
(2014) Agency and interactive data displays: Internet graphics as co-created rhetorical spaces. Technical Communication Quarterly, 23(4), 303–322. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schmid, C. F.
(1954) Handbook of graphic presentation. New York, NY: Ronald Press.Google Scholar
Sloane, C. S.
(1914) Statistical atlas of the United States. [Charts and maps]. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Spence, I.
(2005) No humble pie: The origins and usage of a statistical chart. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 30(4), 353–368. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spence, I., & Wainer, H.
(2005) Who was Playfair? In H. Wainer. Graphic discovery: A trout in the milk and other visual adventures (pp. 20–23). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Swales, J. M.
(1990) Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tufte, E. R.
(1983) The visual display of quantitative information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.Google Scholar
(1990) Envisioning information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.Google Scholar
U.S. Census Bureau
Where do college graduates work? A special focus on science, technology, engineering and math (July 10, 2014). [URL]
State and local government snapshot (February 15, 2018). Retrieved from [URL]
Walker, F. A., & the United States Census Office
(1874) Statistical atlas of the United States based on the results of the ninth census 1870. [Charts and maps]. New York, NY: Julius Bien. Retrieved from the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division website: [URL]
Williams, F.
(1936) How workers in large cities spend their incomes. Labor Information Bulletin, 3(9): 1–4.Google Scholar
Wong, D. M.
(2010) The Wall Street Journal guide to information graphics. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Yau, N.
(2013) Data points: Visualization that means something. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar