Cutting the x-axis

This Weeks Goody I found (TGIF) is about inflation and how to lie by cutting the x-axis …

Last Tuesday I stumbled across a visualisation of the British Conservatives in my Bluesky timeline posted by the dataviz guys of the Fincancial Times.
It shows the inflation trend in the UK from October 2023 to April 2024.
The curve has risen significantly since Labour came to power.
Really that significant?

Well, the author of this visualisation has chosen the appropriate time range of the inflation trend that best supports his message ‘Labour are making everyone poorer’ – and “designed” the x-axis accordingly.

Thankfully, the Dataviz team at the Financial Times have sat down and drawn up a meaningful chart showing the inflation figures over the last 5 years.
Now the picture looks quite different!

The conclusion?
Please, show as much information as possible within the given space of a dashboard.
For me this is one of the fundamental IBCS rules: CONDENSE – besides STRUCTURE (and both have nothing to do with technology!)
I know that it’s hard to convince recipients of a high information density in reports. But it’s worth to try it again and again and again …

Not convinced? Have a look at this wonderful 20 sec. video ad by the Guardian from 1986: https://lnkd.in/gvGQcyPM
“It’s only when you get the whole picture, you can fully understand, what’s going on.”
 
Have a nice weekend,
 
Lars

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