WhyNot?

Use a graphic for vote-count

Category: Upgrade Features
Responses: 1 (1 in support, 0 neutral, 0 in opposition)
Number of views: 182
Tracking: Track this idea
Community Rating:Average AverageYour Rating:

Instead of, or in addition to, the four items currently given in a line of text for the vote count (total / for / neutral / against), I suggest a graphic consisting of a horizontal line with three colored segments: green / yellow / red. The length of each colored-segment would be in proportion to its percentage of the total votes cast.

I like this because it's more important to give readers an instantaneous sense of the proportion of voters in favor vs. neutral vs. opposed than it is to give them an exact numeric count. (All readers do with such a count is compute the mental equivalent of the proportionate graph I'm proposing in their mind's eye. Why not spare them the tedious effort of that computation, and its and often-inexact result? Why not instead give them the mental-image end-result they really want in the first place? (Aside from the programming difficulty.))

The actual numbers could also be provided thus, to the right of the line: nn/nn/nn. The first number would be green, the second yellow, and the third red. This would be self-explanatory.

If thought necessary, another item could follow, namely = nnn, which would represent the total (in black). It also would be self-explanatory.

Roger Knights, May 25 2008

What do you think of this idea or comment?
(You can change your vote at any time)

agree I agree no opinion No opinion disagree I disagree

Users who liked this idea also liked:

Other ideas in category (Upgrade Features):

What's Meant By 'Recent'? (2 votes) Average
how did you find this place? (1 votes) Average
VerticalJavascriptCategoryNav (2 votes) Average
Commercial Free TV (3 votes) Average
Rejected idea (3 votes) Average
Red/Green for idea tracking (2 votes) Average
Edit my comments (4 votes) Average
Catagories (3 votes) Average
Screennames (3 votes) Average
Old Idea Deletion (4 votes) Average
Editing (3 votes) Average
Funny category (2 votes) Average
Most discussed (2 votes) Average
My favourite (2 votes) Average
Pre-loaded iPod (6 votes) Strong
Center Submit Button (1 votes) Average
Who's On-line ? (5 votes) Average
Don't email user's own comment (1 votes) Average
fictional story category (4 votes) Average
Use a graphic for vote-count (1 votes) Average
Place cursor in comment box (1 votes) Average
Comment Organizer (1 votes) Average
Homonym spell-checker (16 votes) Very strong
Need Government Category (1 votes) Average
"Its Done!" option in WhyNot (3 votes) Average
WhyNot Wiki (8 votes) Strong
Unused space (2 votes) Average
"Report as Spam" Button (6 votes) Strong
More Votes & Comments (2 votes) Average
Vote terms (3 votes) Average
Comment feedback (1 votes) Average
Email updates from whynot.net (3 votes) Average
RSS Feed for WhyNot.net (2 votes) Average
Spell Check (7 votes) Average
WhyNot pages Counter (2 votes) Average
Provide Voted Priority (4 votes) Average
Option to Hide Previous Viewed (2 votes) Average
Look List (3 votes) Average
Book on CD (2 votes) Average
Doodle design (3 votes) Average
Delete Ideas (2 votes) Average
Site communication (2 votes) Average
Latest layout (3 votes) Average
Users who hated this idea also (4 votes) Average
Make All Text Sizes Relative (4 votes) Average
Page size (3 votes) Average
additional html tag (1 votes) Average
WhyNot Corporate/Non-Profit (4 votes) Average
No More Secrets (2 votes) Average
Order of Ideas (1 votes) Average
Comments from other members:

Add your comment

PS: The height of the colored line could grow as more votes were cast. It would only need to have four to six settings. This would incorporate all the information in a single grasp-at-a-glance image.

Roger Knights, May 26 2008