Difficulty in achieving visual clarity in data presentation due to conflicting design principles

Signals over time

3 observed signals across 1 sources, tracked for 0 days. Confidence: low.

What people are saying Observed

• “Narrowing the bars is not reducing non-data ink ratio imo and against the spirit. The bars are the data. And they therefore should be maximally visible, the same way that you BOLD text (make it thicker) that you want to emphasize rather than thin it to "reduce non-message ink ratio." For the width of the bar there is practically speaking a middle ground that uses thick bars but not too thick/close together such that it harms legibility.”

  Hacker News · frustration

• “I think the idea that a bar chart is usually improved by narrowing its bars while keeping them in the same positions is pretty silly. Yes, the article does say that one can take it too far, but I think that's the wrong framing. It's not that using less ink is good, but sometimes if you take that too far then it competes with visual clarity . Visual clarity is always the goal; sometimes clearer designs have more non-data ink, sometimes less; many designs are too busy so "less non-data ink" is usually good, but not always. Tufte's "data-ink ratio" is a pretty good heuristic, but e.g. it would probably become a better match for actual visual clarity if what you counted wasn't "amount of ink" but something that measures spatial change in ink. It's the transitions that feel like noise, much more than patches of constant colour. But "data-ink ratio" is easier to say and easier to read than "ratio of integral of norm of gradient of colour". Also, I think this sort of graph is better with very light gridlines than with no gridlines, though I think Tufte would disagree. Also also, in Tufte's book, immediately be”

  Hacker News · complaint

• “I think the idea that a bar chart is usually improved by narrowing its bars while keeping them in the same positions is pretty silly. Yes, the article does say that one can take it too far, but I think that's the wrong framing. It's not that using less ink is good, but sometimes if you take that too far then it competes with visual clarity . Visual clarity is always the goal; sometimes clearer designs have more non-data ink, sometimes less; many designs are too busy so "less non-data ink" is usually good, but not always. Tufte's "data-ink ratio" is a pretty good heuristic, but e.g. it would probably become a better match for actual visual clarity if what you counted wasn't "amount of ink" but something that measures spatial change in ink. It's the transitions that feel like noise, much more than patches of constant colour. But "data-ink ratio" is easier to say and easier to read than "ratio of integral of norm of gradient of colour". Also, I think this sort of graph is better with very light gridlines than with no gridlines, though I think Tufte would disagree. Also also, in Tufte's book, immediately be”

  Hacker News · complaint