Charts are arguments with data
Every axis decision is an editorial one, whether or not you make it consciously.
5 min readVisual Communication
The frame is the claim
Where the axis begins, what period is shown, what is aggregated — these decide the conclusion before a single mark is drawn. There is no neutral chart, only an honest one.
Encode the thing you mean
Length is read more accurately than area, and area more accurately than colour. Put the point of the chart in the most accurately read channel available.
Label at the mark
A reader should never have to travel to a legend and back. Labels beside the line remove an entire step of work.
There is no neutral chart. There is only an honest one.
—Try this
Take a chart from the news and redraw it twice — once to support the headline, once to undermine it, using the same numbers.