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Reader Daniel sent us a great example of how even little things matter a lot in chart-making. The left chart is the original. The right chart (created by Daniel) shuffled the order of the legend to match the curves, and spaced them out. All of a sudden, the chart is much easier to read.
Reference: "information behaviour of the researcher of the future", UCL, Jan 2008.
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Such a small change results in a dramatic increase in effectiveness! I always try to label the lines when using a line graph versus using the default legend. Nice job!
Posted by: Tony | Apr 08, 2008 at 08:48 AM
And how about getting rid of the misleading curves so we can see the data? Judging from the x-axis it looks like there are only 5 data points per line, but the curves make it look like the data density is much higher.
Posted by: Hadley | Apr 08, 2008 at 10:17 AM
Curved, connected line graphs = bad.
Posted by: Patrick | Apr 08, 2008 at 01:26 PM
There is no question that the labeling on the side makes a big difference in readability of these graphs...now how about taking a stab at making the data itself more readable...not just the label. Thanks for sharing...
Posted by: Art | Apr 30, 2008 at 09:20 AM