science

Harvey balls

Harvey balls is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Harvey balls rather than just read about it. In short: Harvey balls are round ideograms used for visual communication of qualitative information. They are commonly used in comparison tables to indicate the degree to which a particular item meets a particular criterion.

Key takeaways

Harvey balls belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Harvey balls to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Harvey balls from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Harvey balls are round ideograms used for visual communication of qualitative information. They are commonly used in comparison tables to indicate the degree to which a particular item meets a particular criterion. For example, in a comparison of products, information such as price or weight can be conveyed numerically, and binary 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 summarize in a manner allowing easy comparison – thus, Harvey balls are used. In addition to their use in qualitative comparison, Harvey balls are also commonly used in project management for project tracking; in lean manufacturing for value-stream mapping and continuous improvement tracking; and in business process modeling software for visualisation. Harvey L. Poppel is generally credited with inventing Harvey balls in the 1970s while working at Booz Allen Hamilton as head of their worldwide IT consulting practice.

Implementations and support

Scalable Vector Graphics

Scalable Vector Graphics is used in web browsers and applications to render Harvey balls, via the XML vector graphics format.

Microsoft Excel Harvey balls are available within Microsoft Excel since Excel 2007.

Custom fonts Custom fonts have been developed such that the numbers 0–9 map to a particular Harvey ball. Incorporating the Harvey ball into a document then becomes a matter of selecting the number which corresponds to the desired Harvey ball and selecting the custom font. The Harvey balls can then be manipulated like any other font (e.g., color, size, underline) and may be easier to use than other implementations. The main drawback of this approach is that the font either needs to be embedded in the document or all the viewers of the document must have the font installed.

Unicode The use of Unicode to render Harvey balls depends on whether a font with these characters is installed; the Unicode Harvey balls may be difficult to work with in software that does not render these characters uniformly. The Unicode set of related symbols includes:

Modifications and other uses

From 1979 through October 2016, Consumer Reports used a modified type of Harvey ball in product ratings and had even incorporated one into its logo. Some of the symbols used for Harvey balls are also used in other fields to represent other types of information:

See also Radar graph, also used for comparisons Okta, similar symbols used in meteorology

References

Data related to Harvey balls at Wikidata

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Harvey balls

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Harvey balls claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Harvey balls before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Harvey balls ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Harvey balls

In research: Harvey balls appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Harvey balls in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Harvey balls is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Booz Allen Hamilton, Business terms, Infographics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Harvey balls outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Harvey balls in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Harvey balls means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Harvey balls out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Harvey balls in simple terms?

Why does Harvey balls matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Harvey balls?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Harvey balls.