The Food System

1. For an example of a ‘poor’ data graphic, I have chosen “The Food System” graphic. There are multiple reasons why it is badly designed including its readability, comprehension of information given, and detail.

Firstly, the eye flips all over the page looking for a point in which to start. There is no numbering, nor is there any indication which of the steps is first. After careful consideration the Resources category is the first step, ending with Waste. The readability is fairly simple and neat, but confusion starts when comprehension is compromised.

Though it is a clock-wise rotation, nowhere on the page does it tell you this. Instead of having arrows that point to the next step in the cycle, they have lines attached to a central circle called Exchange. Though it is true each step is an exchange, it complicates the graphic substantially. This is because many of these steps do not exchange with each other at all. The producers and the processers would interact, but would eating and producing ever exchange? Probably not.

The steps too are far too vague and do not cover the process fully. Going from processing to eating does not actually happen; there is an intermediary, the ‘Distributor’.

There is a true lack of details in this graphic. There are multiple planes, buses, and cars littered around the graphics, but after close inspection there is no coherency to where they are placed. Going from the processing plant to eating it does not involve a station wagon.

For these reasons though the graphic is simple, it may be ‘too’ simple and carelessly done to give accurate and straightforward information.

https://www.msu.edu/~howardp/foodsystem.JPG