Dot map

Election 2004 results. This map has a point for each 7500 people, giving a good picture of the most heavily populated areas in the United States. However, it can't accurately show highly dense areas like Manhattan without spilling over the regions, and because of the limitations of computer displays, it is difficult to use brightness of the dots themselves as a value.

ManyEyes: Public University Tuition / Household Income Ratio. A variation on a dot map that uses variable size bubbles to show values. While this gives a less cluttered overview of the data, it lacks the specificity of multiple data points that a traditional dot map affords. The design of this map is good, featuring light color and border lines as well as monochromatic bubbles representing just one value.