What is a radar diagram?
Researchers may then map where any given object of study falls on each vector or axis, and produce a composite profile by linking the points on each axis to create a polygon.
Notes:
My thanks to Don Blick, who as a participant in my ”Alternative Futures: Found and Fabricated” graduate seminar in images of the future, brought radar diagrams to my attention. He used them as an approach to comparing several scenarios in an essay, and the class used them as a basis for discussion of scenarios, as well as analysis and comparison.
I then adapted them, as this example shows, for my graduate seminar in comparative governance and design, ”Creating Cultures for the 21st Century.” In that seminar, we used radar diagrams to compare the characteristics and values embedded in ideologies, and to design new ideologies for future societies.
Please note that radar diagrams do not result in precise output: they are a visual tool to enable relative comparisons, by one observer across a number of cases, or by a number of observers studying one (or more) case. They help groups articulate characteristics or values of interest in comparative work.