I'll admit. I have a fixation on 3D charts. Namely, destroying them any time I come across them. Here you'll see why I have such a problem with them. Don't fall into the trap of "fun" effects that Excel can do.

1. Fire data isn’t ugly
Presenting fire data effectively series
Episode: 3D is for the movies
July 2015

2. A makeover of fire department
data to transform it from
unclear and underperforming
to powerfully informative.

3. Microsoft Excel is not just a powerful tool to keep data
and spreadsheets. It’s a friend for creating quick charts.
However, you need to maintain integrity in the information
you present using those charts.

4. Exhibit: 3d pie
It’s exploding everywhere

5. Trauma, 8%
Other, 9%
Abdominal
Pain, 10%
Cardiac, 15%
General
Weakness,
17%
Respiratory,
20%
Neurological,
21%
Initial Patient Complaint

6. Pie may be bad
but There is nothing you can
learn from an exploded pie

7. Trauma,
8%
Other, 9%
Abdominal
Pain, 10%
Cardiac,
15%
General
Weakness,
17%
Respiratory
, 20%
Neurological
, 21%
Initial Patient Complaint
The problem with 3D is the strain it puts on your eye’s
ability to perceive not only the area but angle of each pie
slice. Exploding the pie chart just makes it that much
worse.
These are the same numbers presented again “flat”.
Trauma, 8%
Other, 9%
Abdominal
Pain, 10%
Cardiac, 15%
General
Weakness,
17%
Respiratory,
20%
Neurological,
21%
Initial Patient Complaint

8. The eye will treat the shadows as part of the category,
overemphasizing the size of them.
So if you want to make something seem bigger or more
important, sure, use 3D but you are responsible for the
integrity of the information you present.

9. The center of the pie chart also moves up and shrinks
any categories at the back.
See how much longer the red arrow is? Your eye can’t
compete with that kind of damaged presentation.

10. Say it with me now:
Just because 3d explosions are
an available choice doesn’t mean
you should ever use them

11. Even without 3D a pie chart is not the most appropriate
choice for the data we’re presenting. A bar chart would
be perfect.
See Episode: Pie is rarely a good idea to view the whole
transformation.
8%
9%
10%
15%
17%
20%
21%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Trauma
Other
Abdominal Pain
Cardiac
General Weakness
Respiratory
Neurological
Initial Patient Complaint
Other, 9%
Abdominal
Pain, 10%
Cardiac,
15%
General
Weakness,
17%
Respiratory,
20%
Neurological
, 21%
Initial Patient Complaint

12. What happens if we use 3D on a bar chart? Nothing
good.
Our bars look completely different in 3D.
8%
9%
10%
15%
17%
20%
21%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Trauma
Other
Abdominal Pain
Cardiac
General Weakness
Respiratory
Neurological
Initial Patient Complaint
0% 10% 20% 30%
Trauma
Other
Abdominal Pain
Cardiac
General Weakness
Respiratory
Neurological
8%
9%
10%
15%
17%
20%
21%
Initial Patient Complaint

13. Technically, the point ends at the bottom corner but
that’s not what our eyes see. Our eyes can’t really tell
where the bars end. Even Respiratory at 20% doesn’t
line up with the gridline.
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Trauma
Other
Abdominal Pain
Cardiac
General Weakness
Respiratory
Neurological
8%
9%
10%
15%
17%
20%
21%
Initial Patient Complaint

14. And those shadows on the end? You guessed it. They
interfere with your eye’s ability to judge length.
Not to mention how bad the labels look without lining
up to the bars.
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Trauma
Other
Abdominal Pain
Cardiac
General Weakness
Respiratory
Neurological
8%
9%
10%
15%
17%
20%
21%
Initial Patient Complaint

15. The 3D effect itself changes the way your eye can
perceive each bar.
The bars aren’t flat, distorting your eye’s ability to judge
the length even without the shadows.
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Trauma
Other
Abdominal Pain
Cardiac
General Weakness
Respiratory
Neurological
8%
9%
10%
15%
17%
20%
21%
Initial Patient Complaint

16. While we’re on the topic of distortion, changing the bars
to cones is even worse. Now your eye is stuck at the
base of all the cones with a teensy little end.
The purpose of a chart is to help visualize the data.
Make sure your choices reflect that purpose.
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Trauma
Other
Abdominal Pain
Cardiac
General Weakness
Respiratory
Neurological
Initial Patient Complaint

17. A column chart fairs no better in 3D.
You still have the shadows and tilted columns but now
you have some columns with a huge amount of shadow
and another with hardly any shadow.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
8% 9% 10%
15% 17% 20% 21%
Initial Patient Complaint

18. Cylinders suffer the same problems.
Initial Patient Complaint
0%
10%
20%
30%
8% 9% 10% 15% 17% 20% 21%
Initial Patient Complaint

19. As do cones.
Literally all I’ve done is change the chart type to one of
the 3D “fun” varieties.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
8% 9% 10%
15% 17% 20% 21%
Initial Patient Complaint

20. Charts are not for fun. They are for informing.
Simple, clean designs that make it easy on our eyes are
perfect. They’re all you need, really.
8%
9%
10%
15%
17%
20%
21%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Trauma
Other
Abdominal Pain
Cardiac
General Weakness
Respiratory
Neurological
We need to add training for neurological complaints to the calendar,
as we have mostly focused training on trauma and cardiac incidents.

21. Avoid 3d at all costs
Unless your data has something
to hide using 3d is always a bad
choice

22. Hello! I’m Sara Wood and I love converting fire service members into
NFIRS operatives. I’m the State NFIRS program manager for Kansas and
enjoy providing classes to help bring fire departments into the era of data
driven decisions. If you need help creating a presentation or analyzing
your data, I’d love to hear from you!