Comments on: Seth’s Three Laws of Great Graphs

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:16:43 +0000

Sandi -

In truth, trends over time are better displayed using line charts. Also, stacking bars makes it hard to compare their values, except for the set closest to the axis.

But then, maybe Seth hasn’t seen a “good” stacked bar graph. Do you have an example you’d like to share?

By: Sandi Mays

Sandi Mays — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:58:59 +0000

I am a huge fan of Seth, but I think #2 is just plain silly. Clearly Seth hasn’t seen a good stacked bar graph showing trends over time. Add a line that shows a budget comparison and you are golden!

By: Sandy Cavalaris

Sandy Cavalaris — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:49:15 +0000

I just knew that you’d take issue with Seth’s Rule 2 when I read it yesterday.

His discussion of the topic continues a bit today:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/07/bar-graphs-vs-p.html

By: Tim Mayes

Tim Mayes — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:40:03 +0000

“line or area (or XY!) charts are a better means for showing trends over time”

Jon,

Thanks for validating my love of XY charts, even though you are exactly right about the advantages of the date scaling in Excel line charts. Much appreciated. :-)