Makeover Monday | Week 15 | 2019: Ranking States by Fiscal Condition

For this week's Makeover, Andy picked a dataset that looks at the fiscal health of all 50 US states.

The original visualization looks like this:

What works well:

• The colors are well-chosen, take into consideration color vision impairments and work well together
• The overall design is neat and engaging
• Including Alaska and Hawaii separately as inlays helps avoid the Alaska effect that would shrink the continental part of the map
• The color legend is well placed
• Call-outs on the right for top 5 and bottom 5 states help make it unmistakably obvious which states fall into those categories
• The title is clear and the question is engaging
• Sources are clearly labeled

What could be improved:

• While the viz is embedded in an article that provides further context, I'd recommend including some information and conclusions in the visualization, so it can more effectively stand alone without being taken out of context
• This viz is a snapshot in time but doesn't tell me whether things are improving or getting worse
• What does it mean for the individual?

What I focused on:

• I really liked the original and after much agonizing decided to recreate it but to offer more information in the visual
• Hover actions to drive interactivity
• Showing key indicators

Click on the image for the interactive version