[EM] "scored condorcet", etc

[Rob Brown]

Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <abd <at> lomaxdesign.com> writes:
> Color (even gray scale) can instantly show the Condorcet winner in a 
> pairwise matrix. I'll use gray scale. When the candidate naming the 
> row wins, leave the background color of the cell white. When the 
> column candidate wins, gray it. The winner is the only candidate with 
> a white row all the way across. (Color the cell with the same name 
> row and column white also.)

Yes, but all it shows is the winner, and only if that candidate is the condorcet
winner.  What if the winner is not a condorcet winner?  The matrix gives no hint
of how the winner was arrived at, short of "here's all the numbers, get out your
calculator and have fun!"  Nor does it show anything about how non-winners did
in comparison.  The color hints that "number of pairwise wins" is the
determining factor, but it's not.

Basically, it just doesn't communicate what a bar graph does.

Here is something I did some time ago that shows a matrix (and yes, with color),
and some bar graph stuff.  I was experimenting with trying to show some
additional information in the bar graph ("relative scores" between candidates),
in a more graphical way than is shown in the matrix.  It's by no means complete
(and some of the text is incorrect, such as how the relative scores are
calculated), but basically I was trying to hint at how the information in a
matrix might be presented in a more graphical way that is easier to take in than
just a big table of numbers you throw at people and expect them to make sense
of.  It goes with the "progressive disclosure" idea, which is that initially you
see the most important information (the candidate "composite" scores as a bar
graph) and only by "digging in" (in this case, mousing over various things) do
you get the additional information.

Progressive disclosure:
http://www.usabilityfirst.com/glossary/main.cgi?function=display_term&term_id=401