Thread by @pablohutch

Another year of my data science class has finished, and so now it's time to talk about this year's run of "the Hunt for the Worst Data Visualization."

This year had some great submissions from the class:

#DataVisualization #DataScience #EconTwitter

First, here is a link to last year's submissions. Students this year were not allowed to choose any of these to keep us hunting for only the worst visualizations

https://twitter.com/pablohutch/status/1391842889722904586?s=20&t=Xrdx4GKFEK6yVra-p-vOeQ

@protensia started us off with a lovely graph I titled "Billy from Family Circus Got a Job at 538"

The cherry on top: citing "various sources"

@protensia Next up was this well intentioned survival guide to the Midwest from Hanna Willwerth I called "When to Drive Over Ice."

I learned from this that I should have an auger with me at all times when driving in Wisconsin.

@protensia @iamajumdar submitted a classic: a graph of gun violence in Florida that supports you no matter what political side you are on.

@protensia @iamajumdar @IvanAndres2789 went after the powers that be by submitting this infamous graph from the White House, who apparently didn't think we would read the y-axis.

@protensia @iamajumdar @IvanAndres2789 Alix Naughler submitted a graph that in theory is a good idea but got sloppy on execution. I called it "The Plot Thickens"

@protensia @iamajumdar @IvanAndres2789 Jack Hanley submitted this graph that wanted to tell us about mask wearing but looks very much like a barcode: "Please Scan Your Item"

@protensia @iamajumdar @IvanAndres2789 Another submission by @IvanAndres2789: Chile tried its best to keep people informed about Covid, but were'nt always successful:

Some bonus faculty submissions that weren't eligible to win: I chose the polarizing graph which portrayed Covid numbers as a fleshy intestine.

Another faculty member (who can tag himself if he pleases) sent me this one which I showed to the class. It had an "interesting" way to use the x-axis.

Finally, Jack had the second worst graph with this bizarre attempt at making a graph where... hot dogs are joints?

The dedication at making the joints fit in the buns leads to some very weird y-axis trickery.

Still, no one could beat this year's champion: Alex Alonso submitted this truly nauseating graph showing voting patterns in the UK. How could something so boring as election results become so gross?

the problem is, there can only be ONE winner of the TITLE BELT. So Alex went head to head against last year's champion @BigNyanzu, pictured here with the title belt:

@BigNyanzu Alas, Alex came out victorious. His truly awful taste in visualizations is unparalleled in this modern era. He is now the champion to beat next year.

Congrats again, Alex!

Thanks to my students for being great sports this year, I had a blast teaching the class.

If I missed someone, please reply with it. If you are on Twitter and I didn't tag you, feel free to tag yourself.

As expected, the COVID tapeworm apologists are all over this one…