Information design

Member lesson

The line, the bar and the point

Lesson 3 of 12 in Information design.

Lesson

Three forms do most of the work, and there is research behind why. People read position and length far more accurately than they read area, angle or colour, which is why bars and dots beat pies and bubbles for anything requiring a judgement of quantity.

from zero0a 4% differencefrom 9595the same 4%every number on both charts is correct
The same two values drawn from zero and from a truncated baseline.
Two circles of slightly different sizes with a squinting eye between them, beside two bars on a shared base line whose difference in height is plain to see.
The same two amounts drawn as circles and as bars. The circles are hard to judge, but the bars show the difference at once, because eyes compare lengths well.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Length encodes value from a zero baseline. The most accurately read chart there is.”

    • Legibility distance
    • Bar chart
    • Truncated axis
    • Metric creep
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Position over a continuous axis, usually time. Shows shape and direction.”

    • Legibility distance
    • Truncated axis
    • Line chart
    • Metric creep
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Two values as a position. The only common form that shows relationship.”

    • Consequence
    • Scatter plot
    • Zebra striping
    • Aspect ratio

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