When the hour hand is on 9, you can see at a glance it is two hours from 11 and three hours from 12 without needing to do the calculation in your head.

I don't think most people need to do a mental calculation to know that 9 am is 3 hours from 12. That's just a fact that's easy to remember since you're exposed to it so often.

When the hour hand is in the upper right, you know is it shortly after noon or midnight depending on how bright it is outside

And when the digital clock says "1" or "2" you know it's either afternoon or the middle of the night. Even better, if you're using 24 hour time you know precisely if it's afternoon or early in the morning even if you're in an underground bunker.

When looking at the minute hand, if you see something started at 2:10

Yes... you can just remember the "minutes" part of the time on a digital clock was too.

15 minutes is easy to figure out because it is a quarter of the circle.

15 minutes is easy to figure out on a digital clock too because it's ultra simple math to just add or subtract 15 from a number below 60.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm imaging you dismissing the idea of a pie chart because obviously 8 is twice as large as 4 and knowing 8 is 2/3 of 12 is just a fact people know because they are exposed to it so often.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works -1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You should know that pie charts are widely seen as being very ineffective ways of communicating data.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

All of the examples of bad pie charts are completely different than a pie chart viewed straight on with only two values. You know, the thing pie charts are perfect for.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works -1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

With only 2 values? Why would you want that? And what makes you believe they're as good as a bar chart for that?

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

why would you use a bar chart to display a proportion?

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Because it's easier for humans to read?

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

i'm not convinced that's true though. bar graphs are best for visualizing a simplification of an aggregate set and comparing it against a related aggregate set. that doesn't sound like a good way to visualize a proportion. much better to display a whole broken down into the componets of that whole.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

i'm not convinced that's true though.

Ok, well the people I linked to have done actual usability studies to back up their claims. But, you have a feeling?

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

i read them and am not refuting them. the conversation is about bad and good situations for pie charts. we're talking about a scenario in which what is being compared is two proportions. a scenario in which the articles you linked said a pie chart is a reasonable visualization

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Reasonable, but not as good as a simple bar chart.