Dr. Drang☃️ Why a common bit of graphing advice is baloney.
https://leancrew.com/all-this/2024/07/a-good-or-bad-example/
https://leancrew.com/all-this/2024/07/a-good-or-bad-example/
Michael Knepprath@drdrang thank you. this has been driving me nuts
Ben@drdrang Any chance you could put in an image of your "ideal" chart so we can compare and see how much better the data is displayed?
Bill Mill@drdrang absolutely every time I post a graph I get people arguing with me about this, it's infuriating
Steven Holland@drdrang I would redefine zero as your target weight, and the plot would show pounds above or below that target
Moth@drdrang Graphs are tools meant to visualize data. People who are, without nuance, strictly against graphs that don't start at 0, either don't understand what graphs are for or don't understand why certain graphs not starting at 0 is wrong.
David Hodge@MothWaves @drdrang I'd use points, if you don't want the y scale to go to zero
@davidhodge931 @drdrang I think using points because you don't want people to get confused because they didn't read the graph correctly is the best idea. Using graphs dishonestly is absolutely a thing but I don't think the best way to combat that is to design graphs around what you think people will misunderstand it as.
Mike J👹🐀 🤘🏻@drdrang I always use body temperature as my example.
"Normal" is supposed to be 98.6F usually varying between 98F-99F. If it's over 104F, you're probably about to die, same if it goes under 90F.
Starting at zero is the dumbest possible way to scale it.
Eugene Kim@drdrang The rule is right, it’s their choice of visual that is wrong. Should have been a line chart. (Including zero in the axis only applies to bar charts)