The+World's+Best+Countries

Case Study: The World's Best Countries Azarmeen Dastoor



Visualization link: The Daily Beast

Thomas Klepl and Adam Clarkson created Newsweek’s //The World’s Best Countries//, an information visualization which ranks countries based on: education, health, quality of life, economic dynamism, and political environment. It was most likely produced to inform those considering migrating to another country for a number of reasons – such as those listed above, or because of war, overpopulation, oppression, starting over, to be closer to family, etc., even though an article //Newsweek// states it was made to simply inform users which country gives the most opportunities to live the best life (Foroohar).
 * Overview**

The primary strength in this visualization is the amount of categorization and organization of the data, making it extremely user-friendly to find the specific statistics the user desires. Rather than showing an entire map of the world to convey this information, the countries are shown as dots – all evenly proportioned to simplify the data. By making this abstract, stylistic change, the entire visualization can be displayed without scrolling on a small 13” laptop.
 * Strengths**

The user determines the scale of the data as well – they can customize the country list to show all countries, a certain continent’s countries, or choose the top few countries that drive the world economy forward. If the user wishes to compare two countries, they can do so by clicking on their names (or on any dot in the graph) and seeing a graphical and numerical juxtaposition of the two scores in detail. To make reading the comparative numerical data even easier for the viewer, little triangular arrows are shown on either side that mark which country has the better score (see **Figure 1**).

**Figure 1:** Singapore is harder to do business in compared to France, but more has productive growth. The arrows on either side of the table cell indicate which country has a better outcome in its respective sub-category. Besides the obvious criteria for ranking a country, this visualization offers much more information. For instance, some demographical statistics are also conveyed on the top population groups as well as in some sub-categories under quality of life and health. General trends and correlations are readily visible when the data on the graph is highlighted using bright colours against the dark background (see **Figure 2** and **Figure 3**). Users might find it surprising that this visualization ranks certain countries lower than what they expected for economic dynamism. This visualization takes into account (and displays) the countries which still might be recovering from the financial crisis of 2008 (Foroohar).


 * [[image:2_WBC_Income.png width="347" height="319" align="center"]] || [[image:3_WBC_Population.png width="404" height="310" align="center"]] ||
 * **Figure 2:** Many of the low-income groups are clumped together at the bottom of each graph showing a general trend. There is a strong correlation between low GNI and lack of good: education, health, quality of life, economic dynamism, and political environment. || **Figure 3:** A possible correlation between a small population and a higher quality of life and higher economic dynamism. ||

When the mouse hovers over the table on the right, an extra blurb of information appears (see **Figure 4**) to let the user know how the data was calculated and/or where the data was retrieved for validity purposes.

**Figure 4:** Extra information on how the data calculations were determined. The annotation also includes the source of the data and unit of measure.
 * Limitations**
 * This visualization only allows users to select a maximum of two countries for side-by-side comparisons at a time.
 * Ranking is based on a limited number of factors, possibly making the entire evaluation inaccurate, though this is subjective.
 * Not sure if this is intentional or not, but if one or two countries are selected and the country group is changed after the selection, the connecting lines on the graphs disappear.

//The World’s Best Countries// is very successful at communicating its data in an organized manner. Although this visualization is interactive, the graphed parts of the visualization never change and remain static so the user can identify the dotted countries without the need for a mouseover or click. It also grounds the entire visualization, since everything else around the graphs is dynamic, changing according to the user’s preferences.
 * Effectiveness**

This visualization is already highly systematic, but if it is actually intended for people considering migration then a few more relevant statistics should be added. Such statistics can include population density, sex ratio and net migration rate to determine their chances of getting their immigration granted.
 * Improvements**

Works Cited

Foroohar, Rana. "How we Ranked the World." //The Daily Beast//. The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC. 16 Aug. 2010. Web. 27 Oct. 2011. .

Newsweek. "The World’s Best Countries." //The Daily Beast//. The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC. 15 Aug. 2010. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. .