Labels, scales, controls, aggregation all in play
Transforming the data to fit the message

GDPR: justice for data visualization

Reader LG found the following chart, tweeted by @EU_Justice.

EU_justice_GDPRinnumbers

This chart is a part of a larger infographic, which is found here.

The following points out a few issues with this effort:

Redo_eujustice_gdpr_complaints_1

The time axis is quite embarrassing. The first six months or so are squeezed into less than half the axis while the distance between Nov and Dec is not the same as that between Dec and Jan. So the slope of each line segment is what the designer wants it to be!

The straight edges of the area chart imply that there were only three data points, with straight lines drawn between each measurement. Sadly, the month labels are not aligned to the data on the line.

Lastly, the dots between May and November intended to facilitate reading this chart backfire. There are 6 dots dividing the May-Nov segment when there should only be five.

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The chart looks like this when not distorted:

Redo_eujustice_gdpr_complaints_2

 

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