Honest bar charts

Start bars at zero, sort by value, and print the number on each bar.

From refactoring-ui: Data Visualization, “Bar Charts”.

Where the axis starts

Drag the minimum. The real gap stays 3.2%.

$95k
Axis starts anywhereBad
West ÷ North = 7.5×
Axis starts at zeroGood
West ÷ North = 1.03×

Sort, label, cap the count

Find the third-biggest channel in each chart.

Dashboard defaultBad
8 bars
Your settingsGood
6 bars

Strip the chartjunk

Untick decorations. The numbers never change.

Decorations on the left chart
DecoratedBad
5 / 5
Data onlyGood
0 / 5

Why it matters, pros and cons

Why it matters

A bar's length is its value, so it must start at zero. Readers rank by eye before reading numbers.

Pros

  • Differences look as big as they are.
  • Ranking reads at a glance.
  • No legend round-trip.

Cons

  • Small changes in big numbers vanish; chart the delta.
  • Months and scales keep their natural order.
  • "Other" hides the tail.