5 ms·

I completely agree with the author, but I don't think it was taken far enough. The positive examples at the bottom are crawling out of whatever pit of hell the

by tel 16y ago

I completely agree with the author, but I don't think it was taken far enough. The positive examples at the bottom are crawling out of whatever pit of hell the "184 milk jugs" came from, but meaningless colors, exuberant gradients, fading bars, big overlapping data points... these are all examples of chart junk as well. My favorite information design mantra is that your design should be exactly as exciting as your data. This probably takes it too far, but much like statistics it is so easy to lie with graphs that you're better off assuming you're lying accidentally.

destraynor 16y ago
Hey tel, I wrote the article, thanks for your agreement, allow me to quickly explain myself. The gradients served purely as a background to the image in the article. I wasn't suggest that every diagram ever should have a gradient backdrop. Overlapping data points was a laziness of my behalf, I was just throwing these examples together in Omnigraffle. The colours in the Markov chain aren't meaningless, they are just out of context. (The idea came from a dash I designed where the app distinguished customers by colour type, so I followed that convention in the chain). Most of all thanks for reading my article, and for your considered feedback. Regards, Des (@destraynor)
- tel 16y ago
  Hey Des, Sorry if my comment sounded overly critical — I'm sure you know well the frustration you can get from infographics, and simultaneously the urge to just have everything be somehow perfect, suddenly. I want to also mention that I appreciated bringing up the Victoria Secret graphics. Sometimes it is important to lie, much like humor being the best way to tell a sad story. Anyway, thanks for writing the article. Despite my criticisms, I'm always happy to see more arguments to whittle away abject trust in garden variety infographics. To round out my comment, I want to mention that I really appreciated the note that there is definitely a time for confusing, artistic infographics even if they are misleading. Victoria's Secret graphics can definitely raise awareness from 0 in a hostile crowd, they also can overemphasize detils to compensate for the audience's unwillingness to consider them meaningfully.
  - destraynor 16y ago
    Hey Tel, Thanks for your reply - no worries re: sounding critical. Your points were valid. The Victorias Secret thing is something I keep reminding myself. Life is not about "usability" - the experience is more importantly. Reminds me of a Joel Spolsky quote "Usability is not everything. If usability engineers designed a nightclub, it would be clean, quiet, brightly lit, with lots of places to sit down, plenty of bartenders, menus written in 18-point sans-serif, and easy-to-find bathrooms. But nobody would be there. They would all be down the street at Coyote Ugly pouring beer on each other— - Joel Spolsky"

by tel 16y ago

destraynor 16y ago

Hey tel, I wrote the article, thanks for your agreement, allow me to quickly explain myself. The gradients served purely as a background to the image in the article. I wasn't suggest that every diagram ever should have a gradient backdrop. Overlapping data points was a laziness of my behalf, I was just throwing these examples together in Omnigraffle. The colours in the Markov chain aren't meaningless, they are just out of context. (The idea came from a dash I designed where the app distinguished customers by colour type, so I followed that convention in the chain). Most of all thanks for reading my article, and for your considered feedback. Regards, Des (@destraynor)

tel 16y ago
Hey Des, Sorry if my comment sounded overly critical — I'm sure you know well the frustration you can get from infographics, and simultaneously the urge to just have everything be somehow perfect, suddenly. I want to also mention that I appreciated bringing up the Victoria Secret graphics. Sometimes it is important to lie, much like humor being the best way to tell a sad story. Anyway, thanks for writing the article. Despite my criticisms, I'm always happy to see more arguments to whittle away abject trust in garden variety infographics. To round out my comment, I want to mention that I really appreciated the note that there is definitely a time for confusing, artistic infographics even if they are misleading. Victoria's Secret graphics can definitely raise awareness from 0 in a hostile crowd, they also can overemphasize detils to compensate for the audience's unwillingness to consider them meaningfully.
- destraynor 16y ago
  Hey Tel, Thanks for your reply - no worries re: sounding critical. Your points were valid. The Victorias Secret thing is something I keep reminding myself. Life is not about "usability" - the experience is more importantly. Reminds me of a Joel Spolsky quote "Usability is not everything. If usability engineers designed a nightclub, it would be clean, quiet, brightly lit, with lots of places to sit down, plenty of bartenders, menus written in 18-point sans-serif, and easy-to-find bathrooms. But nobody would be there. They would all be down the street at Coyote Ugly pouring beer on each other— - Joel Spolsky"