I’d like to add a chart to each attraction on the site, showing how accurate the posted wait time is as compared to the actual wait time.
That accuracy varies based on time of day.
Below is a prototype of the chart. I’d like to know if it’s understandable. As a reminder when providing feedback: I’ve raised a daughter through her teenage years. Your words won’t hurt me.
Is this meant to be a single, relatively static chart on the ride page showing overall data or is this meant to be date-specific statistics for the ride?
I understand what you’re trying to tell me, and math doesn’t scare me but I’m not a statistics nerd either. As an end user, the layout seems really awkward.
You are using time elapsed from the ride opening for the x-axis. I would think that actual time of day would be more desirable.
As for the y-axis, I get what you’re showing but that seems to be a lot of math to do for the end user.
And I’m not completely sure why there are 3 different lines on the graph. If I’m understanding correctly, it’s wait times experienced by 50% of people vs 75% vs 90%. Why isn’t it a single line that shows the averaged deviation from the posted time?
I guess if I’m looking for data like this, my only question is what’s my actual wait time going to be vs the posted time? And I’m not sure I’m finding overtly it in this graph.
Thank you!
It’s meant to be a single chart showing overall data.
The opening time varies for many parks and rides. So two times collected at 8:30 a.m. for the same ride on different days might represent “the ride just opened” and “the ride’s been running for 30 minutes already.”
You think I should drop the 75% line? 50% makes sense, and 90% is there as a sort of “worst case” scenario.
The graph isn’t clear to me, particularly with a high line and low line which are still percentage based, essentially. I would expect that the high line would be the longest wait, and the low line the, well, lowest. But if 9 of 10 are that or less, what about the remaining 10%?
I guess I’m not sure how I would use this information.
So, in summary: I hate you and you’re the worst dad, ever! Now…can I have $20?
From a practical standpoint, this makes it more confusing to me. Like, let’s say a ride has a delayed opening, and opens 3 hours after the park opens…does the chart make sense relative to opening of the park, or the ride itself still? Because I would think (I don’t know) that the curve would look quite different if it opened 3 hours late, versus at park opening.
As a user, I’m more interested in, at a given time of day, when would I MOST (or LEAST) expect the wait times to be better or worse than posted. I don’t really care when the park opened, so much as the time of day. (And yes, I understand the struggle, then, to show this based on an 8:30 opening, 9:00 opening, etc. )
Any chance that the x-axis could be broken into three or four hour time spans? For example, 1st four hours of day, 2nd four hours…..
Is that graph saying that 9 out of 10 guests that enter the Safari queue should expect to wait longer than posted time a majority of the day? Or can I not read that chart at all? Doesn’t that go against “Disney always inflates wait times”?
Okay, clearly I’ve started off wrong here. Let’s start over.
I want a graph that answers these two questions:
Here are the constraints:
If you’re in the mood, do a rough sketch on a sheet of paper showing what you think that graph should look like, and post it here. Thanks!
This is why I think we need different lines.
What’s a good threshold for “Most expect”? Like, if 90% of the actual wait at 3 pm are below the posted time, is that good enough for “most”? Would 50% + 1 be sufficient, or would other people think that’s a coin flip and they want more certainty?
Same thing for “Least expect” - is less than 10% odds “least”? 20%?
I’m okay with any set of numbers, as long as we all agree on them.
As for the feedback, I’m going to wait until we get further into the discussion. Simply because I’m just not sure what this is trying to tell me, plus graphs scare me! Well maybe scare is the wrong word, confuse is more accurate. So for me I’m not sure what the 3 lines represent exactly.
Happy to buy dinner for the first few folks that post sketches. Email me a receipt and I’ll venmo you.
KEEP IT CLEAN, PEOPLE. DONT MAKE ME REGRET THIS. 
I actually think this is good the way it is. (Although I like Scott’s note to use the actual time instead of hours since ride opening.)
Now, it’s not super easy to read in the way that most charts will be, but that’s because this is a complex concept that requires additional layers of explanation and analysis. With a couple minutes of staring I figured it out.
One thing that surprises me is just how much the lines drop off in the last two hours! Disney is really overstating waits then. I need to be more bold in hopping in lines at the end of the day.
Animal Kingdom
Exactly.
I’m not really sure how to render it exactly, but I’m wondering if a kind of “heat map” style graph would be more useful. Rather than 3 lines, it is more like a gradation based on percent chance kind of thing.
I’m admittedly not a terribly visual person, so I’m not sure, exactly. If you are within a standard deviation type range, it is shaded blue, and the further away you get, the more red it becomes. That kind of thing.
I’d try to draw something out for you, but then I’m afraid I’d be accused of drawing something “unclean”.
I love that movie. My wife finds it horribly offensive. Which is kind of what makes it funny.
I like the heat map idea.
Also, I think percents would make more sense to the common person, than ratios.
I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue.
I hate data analysis (says the database admin), so I would never use this. I’d love dinner, but I hate drawing graphs. Sorry for letting you down.
I appreciate everyone weighing in.
I’m looking at alternatives that aren’t graphs, like this:
Here’s an option that incorportates @PrincipalTinker ‘s grouping idea:
similar idea in horizontal orientation:
and a mixture of both ideas:
