Harvey Balls
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Harvey Balls are round pictograms used in comparison tables to indicate the degree to which a particular item meets a particular criterion. They are particularly useful to visually convey qualitative information.
For example, in a comparison of two products, information such as price or weight can be conveyed numerically. Information such as the existence or lack of a feature can be conveyed with a check mark. However, information such as "quality" or "safety" or "taste" is often difficult to summarise in a way that is easy to compare. Thus Harvey Balls can be used.
Typically the empty Harvey Ball (the left-most Harvey Ball in the above series) indicates the "lowest" level of something (e.g. taste, quality, suitability) while the full Harvey Ball (the right-most Harvey Ball) indicates the "highest" level. The middle 3 Harvey Balls indicate more or fewer.
Harvey Balls are named after their inventor, Harvey Poppel, who was a partner at the management consulting firm of Booz Allen Hamilton in the 1980s. Consumer Reports is well known for using a modified type of Harvey Ball in rating products.
Harvey Balls have nothing to do with Harvey Ball, the inventor of the smiley face.
