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I’ve experienced histograms far more frequently than box and whisker plots. When explained well, box and whisker plots can be highly effective ways of conveying information. However, I find that histograms are more intuitive and effective for public-facing work.
I agree that a horizontal bar graph would best illustrate ranking. This format allows the viewer to see the largest bar (with the most observations) at the top, and and the smallest bar (with the fewest observations) at the bottom. In the Eastern Zone, Curative Care Visits would be the largest bar (n=987), whereas Inpatient Medical (n=2) and Inpatient Obstetrics (n=2) would be at the bottom. In the Northern Zone, Curative Care Visits would be the top bar (n=586) and Speech Therapy would be the bottom bar (n=1). Though the top bar is the same across both zones, the rankings overall certainly differ. Looking more granularly, the rankings for the Eastern Zone from largest to smallest would be: Curative Care Visit, Physical Therapy, Well Visit, Emergency Room, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Inpatient Nursery/NICU, and Inpatient Medical and Inpatient Obstetrics. In the Northern Zone, the rankings from largest to smallest would be: Curative Care Visit, Physical Therapy, Well Visit, Emergency Room, Inpatient Medical, Inpatient Nursery/NICU and Inpatient Obstetrics, Inpatient Surgery and Occupational Therapy, and Speech Therapy.
I think a line graph would best depict Flores del Mundo’s membership trends over the course of the year. This type of graph shows the shape of the data and is easy to understand at a glance. However, If we are interested in graphing total membership vs. detailed type (i.e., employee, spouse, or child), I would suggest a color-coded bar graph to show patterns and trends across each group. Using a line graph for this type of data may be cluttered and difficult to interpret. A line graph or a bar graph could be effective to Eastern and Northern membership trends on the same graph. In either case, sticking to a 2D plane would be best.
Based on Few’s definition, I believe the WHO local maternity dashboard to be a dashboard. It has the basic elements to convey vital information to the target audience. Specifically, I think the color-coded system is helpful to highlight important trends in the data over time. However, like others on this thread, I agree that the information can be shown differently to more productively meet the needs of the audience. The addition of graphs to show trends over time could helpful. These could include line graphs to show time-series data or bar graphs so illustrate deviations from an average metric.
