| May 14, 2006 |
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Junk Charts
Junk  Charts is the sworn enemy of confusion, obfuscation, and over-illustration in the art of presenting information visually. "Chart junk is everywhere," explains the site's creator, a self-described and anonymous "junk artist." For example, in an entry titled "Statistics and liars," he calls this recent American Petroleum Institute chart a "sloppy and deceptive piece of work." Like a Mr. Blackwell for the slide-rule set, the Junk Charts guy pulls no punches in assessing the aesthetic merits of each diagram. In "Stacks and groups," he writes: "This stacked, grouped bar chart is a mess! There isn't much right about it: The colors are blinding, the group labels are taxing, the grouping is obscure...and neither axes have labels." Meowww! Sounds like an assessment of Cher on the red carpet. Thankfully, examples of good charts are also included. (in Science) |
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