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The Donut Chart Delusion: Why Pretty Power BI Visuals Can Ruin Smart Decisions!

When dashboards start to look like desserts, making good decisions gets harder.

Author

Glenda Carnate
December 05, 2025

Read time: 2.5 minutes

Here’s the truth: not every chart should look nice. Some are meant to show the facts. Donut charts often fail at both.

Recently, a stakeholder asked for a donut chart on their dashboard because it seemed more modern. We added it, but the insights quickly disappeared. What looked neat at first became a confusing mix of angles, pastel colors, and hard-to-read percentages.

At that point, it wasn’t a real visualization. It was just a sweet, circular distraction that didn’t help anyone make real decisions.

6 ways to keep your charts honest:

  1. Choose clarity over aesthetics.
    If a chart looks nice but doesn’t say anything, it’s just decoration, not real analysis.

  2. Use bar charts for comparisons.
    People find it much easier to compare lengths than angles.

  3. Don’t use more than three categories in a circular chart.
    Any more than that, and the chart just gets confusing.

  4. Put labels right on the chart instead of using a legend.
    Legends add unnecessary thinking steps.

  5. Test readability at a glance.
    If people can’t spot the highest value in two seconds, the chart isn’t working.

  6. Help stakeholders understand, but do it kindly.
    Show them how much clearer a bar chart is compared to a donut chart, and they’ll switch right away.

💡Key Takeaway: 

When dashboards focus on looking sweet instead of showing data, good decisions fall apart.
Or, more meme-friendly: Readability: 0%. Confidence: frosted.

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