Tuesday 29 April 2014

Fanscape map excitement

I was sent a link to the following map by Rob Story. I can't bring myself to thank him...it made my eyes bleed and I genuinely do not know where to begin in dissecting it. It goes straight to the top of 2014's worst map so far list...and that's something given we only recently saw the NBC Nightly News abomination. It's from Newsweek's Tumblr though tracing the true origin and figuring out who made it is probably a good thing.


What does it show? Who knows.
What do the colours mean? Impossible to tell, even on a well calibrated screen.
What exactly is being mapped? No idea. I don't even know what sport (probably a Brit ex-pat issue)
What data is being used? Nope...dunno. 61% of what? What 'fan votes'?
Why map two variables with virtually the same colour? Why? WHY?
Why use an unclassed choropleth? Sorry, I give in.
Why does 'more' seem to be shown in lighter colours in the two things but the inverse is true? Bad.
What is the actual point? Possibly to show how bad a bad map can be?
Is it a joke? I sincerely hope so.

It is that far from the normal cartofail scale it defines its own scale!

Congratulations whoever you are...my opthamologist will be in touch.

Update: Thanks to Martin Elmer for pointing out an inaccuracy in the original post. He also points out it could well be a screen grab of an interactive map. Possibly yes...though most of the problems still apply.

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