UK Brexports

The Original…

Source: The Guardian, ‘Exports to EU plunge by 40% in first month since Brexit’ https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/12/exports-to-eu-plunge-in-first-month-since-brexit-uk-economy

My Revision…

https://public.tableau.com/profile/thecfelix#!/vizhome/MakeoverMondayW13Brexports/MakeoverMondayW13Brexports

My Thoughts…

Same Numbers, Same Stories, Different Impact

The original focused on the historically significant decrease in exports in January, as did my revision. However the original graphed the value of the exports themselves with a $0 fixed axis, which is fine and good, but it reduced the visual impact of the story that was attempting to be conveyed.

A better approach in my opinion would have been to directly chart the monthly percentage changes, allowing the data in the chart to be consistent with the story headline (i.e. a 40% decrease). Moreover, because the story focuses on the decrease, I wanted to separate the monthly decreases from the monthly increases, such that viewers attention could more easily be drawn to the significant decreases in the graph (namely January 2021). Of course, decreases naturally go down, while increases naturally go up, with the same fixed axis on both sides (positive & negative) to ensure integrity.

Data Excerpts can work, but be Ethical

The focus of the story was on the dramatic decrease in January; the original chart contained approximately 275 other historical data points, which was more than enough in my opinion to establish context. I, therefore, decided to simply remove the oldest 4 years of data from the viz and focus on the most recent 20 years. For me, this reduced the noise in the chart, enhanced the focus on the ‘signal’, and omitted nothing that would have significantly altered the integrity of the story.

Nice chart, but what’s it About?

My goal here was a comprehensive viewing experience that left no question for the viewer as to what they were looking at and what the story was about. Accomplishing this included a made-up word in the title, ‘Brexports’ (it’s what you get when your exports are impacted by Brexit), and a beautiful image created by Siwabud Veerapaisarn which I purchased off of shutterstock

That’s all for now. Happy vizzing friends!