Where Does the Money Go?

From the nytimes.com, this graphic visually represents how average consumer spending breaks down, and the color code shows how much spending in that category has changed in the last year. For example, Gasoline is 5.2% of an average consumer's spending, and it has risen 26% from 2007 to 2008.

As far as I can tell, this is actually a treemap, but in a new shape. More details pop-up when you mouse over each of the individual shapes.

Thanks to Tony, for sending in the link.

Comments

[David Whitehill]

While visually striking, I find this graphic hard to read. The variation between shapes makes them quite hard to compare.

Why the change from the standard, easy-to-read treemap?

[Alan]

I could also see this as a modified pie chart...in any case, it's an interesting approach.

[rikkert]

This is known as a voronoi treemap (http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~leeten/courses/2006/au/cse888j14/balzer.pdf)

Its actual advantages are questionable (http://eagereyes.org/Techniques/Treemaps.html)

[TJM]

Wow Randy, very cool image. I'm going to send a few folks to check this out.

I found you when searching for visualization experts for my client: http://www.tableausoftware.com/fast-analytics
While i'm not sure if it is a tool you could use -- i use it to help me display excel data (works with all dbases, too).

Have you seen any tools for visualizing LinkedIn connections graphically??
TJ

[Randy Krum]

I've been looking for a good visualization for LinkedIn too, but I haven't found any. If anyone knows of any, send them my way.

Thanks for the comments.