{"id":602,"date":"2016-09-07T08:47:25","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T12:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/?p=602"},"modified":"2016-09-07T08:47:25","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T12:47:25","slug":"fivethirtyeight-katie-ledecky-graphic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/fivethirtyeight-katie-ledecky-graphic\/","title":{"rendered":"FiveThirtyEight Katie Ledecky graphic"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an old story<\/a>, but it\u2019s one of my favorites that FiveThirtyEight has ever done. It simply does a great job of telling a story. It quantifiably explains Katie Ledecky\u2019s dominance and visually displays it in ways that are easy to ready. Headlines at FiveThirtyEight are typically fantastic, and so is this one \u2014 Somebody Get Katie Ledecky a Time Machine. In my opinion, the best infographic in this story is the one that explores what was referenced in that headline. It shows a timeline of when Ledecky would have been the fastest swimmer on the planet. For people who don\u2019t understand the sport, these infographics effectively convey Ledecky\u2019s swimming success.<\/p>\n

I also liked the depiction of Ledecky vs. History because it showed the methodology behind determining when Ledecky would have been the best in the world. However, I think it would have been better if all six graphs used labels on the x-axis. It\u2019s a bit difficult to understand until you scroll down and see the years. In Introduction: Infographics and Visualization, it said, \u201cGraphics, charts, and maps aren\u2019t just tools to be seen, but to be read and\u00a0scrutinized.\u201d FiveThirtyEight\u2019s graphics intend for readers to do just that. While this story on Ledecky is simple, it still requires some analysis on the readers\u2019 part in order to be properly understood. You can\u2019t rely on a quick glance when it\u2019s more than just a bar chart.<\/p>\n

As mentioned in the Visualizing Trouble article, one of the most common issues I see with infographics is that people overdo it when it comes to colors, amount of data displayed, etc. FiveThirtyEight usually does a decent job of keeping its infographics simple (sometimes I still think the site makes graphics too complex). Particularly in this one about Ledecky, it\u2019s very simple and that\u2019s partially why I think this story is so strong. It\u2019s easy to follow and understand. When people cannot understand a graphic, it\u2019s impossible to tell a story.<\/p>\n

This is a different graphic, but FiveThirtyEight\u2019s election forecast<\/a> is incredible. When I read The Fundamental Principles of Analytic Design, my mind jumped to this forecast because it perfectly epitomized the section about multivariables. The more variables you have, the better your predictions are and the more likely you are to tell meaningful stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an old story, but it\u2019s one of my favorites that FiveThirtyEight has ever done. It simply does a great job of telling a story. It quantifiably explains Katie Ledecky\u2019s dominance and visually displays it in ways that are easy to ready. Headlines at FiveThirtyEight are typically fantastic, and so is this one \u2014 … Continue reading FiveThirtyEight Katie Ledecky graphic<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-module-3","tag-graphics-principles"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MY21-9I","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":303,"url":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/32-medals-later-and-were-still-talking-about-ryan-lochte\/","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":0},"title":"32 medals later and we’re still talking about Ryan Lochte","author":"morganainslie","date":"August 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"32 medals for the United States track and field team. That's how many medals were earned by the various events. Thirty two is the most medals won by the U.S. Track and field team since 1984. But, no one seems to be hearing about that. No one is hearing about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Module 1"","block_context":{"text":"Module 1","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/category\/module-1\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":608,"url":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/fivethirtyeight-serena-williams-graphic\/","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":1},"title":"FiveThirtyEight Serena Williams Graphic","author":"morganainslie","date":"September 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The first goal of an infographic is not to be beautiful just for the sake of eye appeal, but above all, to be understandable first, and beautiful after that, or to be beautiful thanks to its exquisite functionality.\" I find that this quote in the Cairo article sums up the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Module 3"","block_context":{"text":"Module 3","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/category\/module-3\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"e0905usopen-c107","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/246\/2016\/09\/e0905usopen-c107-177x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":598,"url":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/fivethirtyeight-looks-at-the-texas-rangers\/","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":2},"title":"FiveThirtyEight looks at the Texas Rangers","author":"Jordan Hill","date":"September 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"FiveThirtyEight had an interesting story last week about the Texas Rangers, who currently have the second-best record in Major League Baseball. The article takes a deep look into the team's success winning one-run games and compares it to other teams throughout league history. After a close look at history, writer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Module 3"","block_context":{"text":"Module 3","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/category\/module-3\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":619,"url":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/heptathlondecathlon-infographics\/","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":3},"title":"Heptathlon\/Decathlon Infographics","author":"nicolech","date":"September 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I've always been super intrigued by decathlon, heptathlon and pentathlon scoring, just because I like numbers, but this fivethirtyeight article\u00a0triggered even more interest. I personally think the article combined data and infographics very well,\u00a0and most of our reading agrees. The infographics were effective in that they were simple, not over-cluttered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Module 3"","block_context":{"text":"Module 3","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/category\/module-3\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":611,"url":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/graphics-principles\/","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":4},"title":"Graphics Principles","author":"amak","date":"September 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"What would baseball be without its numerous over-analyzed statistics? Instead of making the game simpler, statisticians have found a way to make baseball more complex. \u00a0 Statcast is a new revolutionary tracking tool that can tell the exit velocity of a baseball off a hitters bat. It collects the data\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alex"","block_context":{"text":"Alex","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/category\/students\/alex\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":594,"url":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/data-and-info-graphics\/","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":5},"title":"Data and Info graphics","author":"Ashleigh","date":"September 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In the FiveThirtyEight article titled \"Team USA's Women Are An Olympic Powerhouse\" uses two different graphics to get its point across. It compares two things, shows the differences between the two, and integrates numbers and words. There are scales of measurement used and they are appropriately labeled. The graphic isn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ashleigh"","block_context":{"text":"Ashleigh","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/category\/students\/ashleigh\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}