Recent comments in /f/dataisbeautiful

ahtemsah t1_izfynhc wrote

on point 2 : I'd like to point out that the 2 axes of Y do not have to be the same thing or share the same unit. Hence their values and zero points may not necessarily align. That is to say, there are genuine charts that look like the 2nd on the left. The requirement is that a point need only satisfy (x,y1) and (x, y2) together but that doesn't mean the point has to satisfy (y1,y2) as well. You can find lots of charts like this in experimental research (especially engineering) where an author may condense multiple experiments onto a single graph for comparison, or compare between more than 2 discreet variables.

3

notkevinjohn t1_izfwnch wrote

I think the effort here is generally misguided. I don't think you can make a list of fast and easy rules for determining graphs that are intentionally misleading you versus ones that are trying to accurately inform you. There are perfectly valid reasons to do all the things in this list, and you really have to have a deeper understanding of the data and the context to be able to look back and see if something is misleading. It would be like trying to come up with a list of 'misleading phrases' in English and telling people to watch for those red flags, without a deeper knowledge of the conversation and context, that probably wouldn't work.

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spiral8888 t1_izfurx3 wrote

  1. As someone commented. If you make the Y-axis such that the left one is 10% of the top and the right one 90%, you can make any change, big or small look exactly the same on the graph. In those cases the conveys zero information. You might as well give the values as numbers.

The only situations where it could make sense to suppress the zero are those where the absolute value of the plotted thing has no meaning, such as air temperature. So,.most likely you would never want to plot air temperatures starting from 0K. In most cases the absolute values have meaning, which is why the suppression of the zero just misleads the reader.

9

TrueBirch OP t1_izfuaid wrote

I actually agree with you. I was going for a Christmas theme and it really didn't work out. Normally I'm very restrained in my use of color, and I think I'll go back to that aesthetic.

I also looked at it on my phone after making the post and realized it's hard to read on mobile. I could have dropped the on-bar labels without losing any data, and I could have made it narrower and longer for mobile-friendliness.

3

vleester t1_izft8gy wrote

I like the idea but this is unpleasant to look at.

The amount of Red and Green is a bit much.

I think this is one red/green chart where being colourblind might be advantageous.

The labels being all over the place.

Labels hiding the data!

Axis repeating the title.

3

spiral8888 t1_izfsxmw wrote

The problem is that in some plotting programs that's the default. That's why it's hard to know if the journalist presenting the graph is deliberately trying to mislead or is just incompetent and doesn't understand that if he/she doesn't tell the plotting program not to suppress zero, the graph will be misleading.

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