Comments on: Trolls, Elves, Billygoats/Pies, Bars, Lines http://coronainsights.com/2008/07/trolls-elves-billygoatspies-bars-lines/ Tue, 04 May 2010 19:36:31 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Jon Peltier http://coronainsights.com/2008/07/trolls-elves-billygoatspies-bars-lines/comment-page-1/#comment-25 Jon Peltier Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:55:39 +0000 http://coronaresearch.com/blog/?p=88#comment-25 Charting of these time series was difficult. My split bar chart suffers from difficulties in comparing values across years, but Seth's point was that Trolls were big, and I was showing that Trolls were big three years in a row. A clustered bar like Jorge's may be best, even though the rule says use a line chart for time series. I tried a line chart, which ended up looking much like Geoff's, and I didn't like it (and no offense, but I equally dislike Geoff's). Here's how Geoff's line chart may be improved: 1. Give prominent colors to the trolls and elves, and color the other series an unobtrusive gray. This follows the lead Jorge took with his clustered bar chart. 2. Move labels from the chart to the series. It's hard to do for the clump of data at the bottom, but it's probably less critical down in the weeds anyway. Charting of these time series was difficult. My split bar chart suffers from difficulties in comparing values across years, but Seth’s point was that Trolls were big, and I was showing that Trolls were big three years in a row.

A clustered bar like Jorge’s may be best, even though the rule says use a line chart for time series. I tried a line chart, which ended up looking much like Geoff’s, and I didn’t like it (and no offense, but I equally dislike Geoff’s).

Here’s how Geoff’s line chart may be improved:
1. Give prominent colors to the trolls and elves, and color the other series an unobtrusive gray. This follows the lead Jorge took with his clustered bar chart.
2. Move labels from the chart to the series. It’s hard to do for the clump of data at the bottom, but it’s probably less critical down in the weeds anyway.

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