10 most annoying airline seatmate behaviors

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I recently saw an interesting infographic (see partial screen-capture below) about the top 10 most annoying airline seatmate behaviors. But the infographic was one of those *long* spread out ones, that you have to scroll forever to see the whole thing. I decided to try to create a more efficient SAS graph to visualize the same data, so you can see all the information in one page, at a glance.

Not everyone is as fortunate as my buddy David (pictured below), who has a pilot license, and does not have to worry about annoying behaviors of random seatmates.

dave_pilot

The rest of us non-pilots have to fly on commercial airlines, and the people sitting around us have a variety of behaviors - some good, and some annoying. Expedia's infographic about annoying seatmates was 'cute,' but I had to do so much scrolling to view the 1000x4515 pixel image that by the time I viewed the last few items, I had forgotten what the first few items were!

Therefore I decided to create a no-nonsense SAS graph that allows me to see and compare all the data, in a graph that easily fits on one page without scrolling. I first input the data into a SAS dataset, and then used the following minimal code to produce the default graph. Here's the code and the output:

proc gchart data=my_data;
hbar category / type=sum sumvar=percent;
run;

airplane_annoyances

That's a decent graph, and allows me to easily see and compare the 10 items ... but it could be a lot better with a little more work. Using several built-in options, and specifying characteristics in axis statements, I was able to get a graph that was much better looking, and also easier to compare the 10 items:

pattern1 v=s c=cx00B2EE; /* blue color */
 
axis1 label=none value=(j=right) offset=(4,4);
axis2 label=none major=none minor=none style=0;
 
proc gchart data=my_data;
hbar category / type=sum sumvar=percent descending nostats
maxis=axis1 raxis=axis2
noframe space=0 width=3.7 coutline=white
autoref clipref cref=graydd;
run;

airplane_annoyances1

That's a fine graph, but there is always room for improvement! I found myself looking from left-to-right quite a bit, to see the bar text and then the bar height. So I thought, why not print the text inside the bar, so I don't have to look all the way on the left side of the graph? There's no built-in option to do that, but I suppressed the default text labels by using value=none on the axis statement, and then used data-driven annotate to write the text on the bars. Depending on your preference, either of these two graphs might suit your needs.

data my_anno; set my_data;
length text $100;
xsys='2'; ysys='2'; hsys='3'; when='a';
midpoint=category; x=percent;
function='label'; position='<'; style='albany amt/bold';
text=trim(left(category))||'a0a0'x;
run;
 
axis1 label=none value=none offset=(4,4);
axis2 label=none major=none minor=none style=0;
 
proc gchart data=my_data anno=my_anno;
hbar category / type=sum sumvar=percent descending nostats
maxis=axis1 raxis=axis2
noframe space=0 width=3.7 coutline=white
autoref clipref cref=graydd;
run;

airplane_annoyances2

Do you agree with Expedia's "Top 10" list?  What's the most annoying behavior you've personally seen on a plane?

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About Author

Robert Allison

The Graph Guy!

Robert has worked at SAS for over a quarter century, and his specialty is customizing graphs and maps - adding those little extra touches that help them answer your questions at a glance. His educational background is in Computer Science, and he holds a BS, MS, and PhD from NC State University.

12 Comments

  1. For your readers who use ODS graphics, here is a roughly equivalent graph:

    proc sgplot data=my_data;
    hbar category / response=percent 
            categoryorder=RespDesc datalabel=category;
    yaxis display=none;
    xaxis grid display=(nolabel);
    run;
    • Robert Allison

      It was a tough decision how to justify the test in the bars. People are more used to seeing text left-justified. But in this case I chose right-justified so it would be easier to see the length of the bar & the text without having to move the eyes left/right. It would probably work out ok either way :)

  2. Robert, nice graph, it uses the bar space well, might as well put text in place of monotone bar color.
    Was the origin of the data a output from a proc freq on category?
    Thanks for your continued support of SAS via texts and social media.

    • Robert Allison
      Robert Allison on

      Thanks for the feedback!

      I'm not sure what tool Expedia used to summarize their survey data (SAS, or other). I just read the pre-summarized values, and entered them into a SAS dataset.

  3. Really nice graphs!

    The most annoying person I sat next to was from Korea to DFW, and he was chewing and spitting skoal tobacco into a cup the entire flight.

  4. The first two often go together! Usually the 'rear-seat kicker' is a child whose 'inattentive parents' are completely oblivious.

  5. The most annoying person I ever encountered, was the guy in a middle seat who thought he was "entitled" to an aisle seat because he "paid so much".
    The stewardess was really great, and did not take his BS.
    Yeah, there are a lot of other selfish people.

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