Name the unit.
A token might stand for a session, an item or another clearly defined quantity. Do not let its meaning change between two views while the graphic continues to look comparable.
Polynance / A visual notebook of quantities
Count the units.
Keep the context.
A number is easier to read when the whole, the unit and the comparison stay visible. Explore proportions through small visual studies you can explain without hiding the question behind the graphic.
Read the comparison guideStudy 01 / Twelve paper tokens
The total stays.
The balance changes.
Imagine twelve equal tokens divided between reading, making and review. These are simple planning categories for the exercise. Compare a reading-heavy arrangement with an even one before deciding what either arrangement is for.
Arrangement A
6 / 4 / 2 — total 12
Arrangement B
4 / 4 / 4 — total 12
Reading
Making
Review
Read the change
Both arrangements contain twelve units. Moving from A to B transfers two units from reading to review while making remains at four. The graphic shows a change in allocation; it does not tell us which arrangement suits a particular task.
Study 02 / Make like-for-like visible
A fair comparison
has shared boundaries.
Show the whole.
Six units out of twelve and six units out of twenty-four have the same count but a different share. Keep the total close to the part so the reader does not have to infer it.
Use the same scope.
Check what has been included and left out. A comparison of different periods or different categories may answer another question from the one its heading appears to ask.
Keep the explanation nearby.
A visual can make a relationship apparent quickly. A short sentence should still say what changed, what stayed constant and what the comparison cannot establish on its own.
Study 03 / Two useful ways to say the same share
A count and a fraction
answer related questions.
6 / 12 = 1 / 2
Six of the twelve tokens in Arrangement A are assigned to reading. The fraction expresses reading's share of the whole. The count tells us how many tokens occupy that share in this particular arrangement.
Another set could contain four reading tokens out of eight and still give reading half the total. The share would match, while the count and the size of the whole would differ.
Bring the comparison back to the decision
Write what the numbers
are being asked to do.
- The question
- What choice or relationship are you trying to understand? A clear question keeps the visual from becoming an impressive but unrelated display.
- The unit and total
- Name what one unit represents, how the total was formed and whether those definitions stay the same across the comparison.
- The visible change
- Describe the difference in plain language. Include what remains constant so the reader can locate the actual movement.
- The limit
- Say what else matters. A balanced allocation may be easy to draw without being the right arrangement for every purpose or circumstance.
Make the comparison
clear enough to question.
The field guide takes a small set of quantities through a defined unit, a visible whole and a plain-language reading.