> So the diagram should not be used because of an education problem with some audiences?
A problem like this one that he mentions, "People associate longer shapes with greater quantity", is not something you can fix by teaching. Even if you know intellectually that the association is, in this case, wrong, you can't free yourself from the association. It's hardwired into the brain.
People who work with this sort of diagram a lot will eventually build up context-specific associations that work better, overriding that instinct, to the point where it feels seamless. But even if it feels seamless and easy, the dissonance is still there, and may lower your comprehension speed and slightly impair your judgment.
As a statistics expert, you are never going to notice that, because your baseline comprehension speed and judgment on the subject is so good, that this very minor impairment is lost in the noise. So you may not be a good judge of the usability qualities of the diagram type.
A problem like this one that he mentions, "People associate longer shapes with greater quantity", is not something you can fix by teaching. Even if you know intellectually that the association is, in this case, wrong, you can't free yourself from the association. It's hardwired into the brain.
People who work with this sort of diagram a lot will eventually build up context-specific associations that work better, overriding that instinct, to the point where it feels seamless. But even if it feels seamless and easy, the dissonance is still there, and may lower your comprehension speed and slightly impair your judgment.
As a statistics expert, you are never going to notice that, because your baseline comprehension speed and judgment on the subject is so good, that this very minor impairment is lost in the noise. So you may not be a good judge of the usability qualities of the diagram type.