Tag: charts

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Design

A word about chart junk

Chart junk illustrated
When you truncate the vertical axis of a chart, you exaggerate any changes reflected in the data.

Charts that cheat by showing only part of the vertical axis will exaggerate any change in data compared to a chart with a complete vertical axis. This example comes from two data points in a recent Pew study. The chart on the left shows the change from 2007 to 2014 using a complete (0-60) vertical axis. […]