cars trouble/cost index, 2020

First impressions
This is a minimalistic execution, in terms of colors (black with white background), shapes (circles of varying fill, boxes to separate car models). It is easy to compare two different makes, for a wide range of trouble spots. It is very compact, with the trouble spots index being in the middle. The information is hierarchical with the help of font weights, flow (top to bottom), and spacing (car brand and make, then years in columns).

Context and Purpose
The above graphic appeared in Consumer Reports, a review magazine. It is used to compare similar consumer goods, for metrics like price points, quality, features etc.. This graphic allows for just that, particularly how easy it was to maintain these cars, comparing against the cost. Similar to the subway report graphic, no quantifiers are given, where I presume some categorization was done to produce the 5 categories used in rating. The gif was pixellated and I had a hard time differentiating between the graphics of the first two ratings, a point which was probably not in the designer’s consideration at the time of print.

Minimalism aside, the graphic is not very appealing, and requires a fair bit of effort to locate information like brand and make of car, as all are in text.

My take
I’ve decided to create a visual that serves as a summary page, focusing on the trouble and cost indices. I have the luxury of adding color, which I have kept to 3 (4 if you count the background). I used the colors to differentiate between ratings, which helps to make the overall quality of each car pop.

I added car pictures to aid in locating these models. For each car module, I separated the brand of the car and the make into two different lines.