It is well known that plane waves in electricity and magnetism (E&M) are misunderstood by students. Particularly, the traditional visual representation of these plane waves is misleading, and students are confused by the waves’ three-dimensionality. A possible improvement has been designed using an animated vector field. Graduate physics students were presented two different visual representations of E&M plane waves. The students were asked to describe what each visual represents in detail. Students’ reactions to those two representations are compared and the content delivered in each visualization is assessed, suggesting that the advantages of the animated vector field may be significant.