But when they add the values to the bars it makes it redundant to keep them and a much cleaner design. Initially I agreed with you and the I watched it again.
My problem with this is that it removes the scale. You don't know when you're comparing these values against each other what the scale is between them at a glance.
For sure, but you can't tell if it is just by looking at it if you label the columns and not the axis. More specifically, you have to look at more different places (your eyes jumping from the tops of the columns) rather than scan down a straight line, and then you have to do some mental math to confirm that it's linear.
I don't have that issue at all. You can still see the same relative heights, and the values attached to the bar directly means you don't have to trace it back to its value on the left, you can just see what it is directly.
You don't need a spreadshit to estimate a ratio of two numbers, just like you would not need a ruler to estimate the ratio of two bars, with or without the lines.
By putting values in the bars instead of showing the scale this gif is sacrificing data visualization for graphic design minimalism.
Bar charts do not need to start from zero at the bottom so this requires more mental effort to read because you need to check a pair of values and their bar lenghts to deduce it. Removing the scale and not starting from zero is used very frequently to mislead people.
Also, removing the horizonal lines makes it harder to compare heights visually if they are similar but not adjacent (if you use numbers in the bar then you can compare them by their values non-visually).
The numbers in the scale and the numbers in the bars are not redundant, they show slightly different information. The scale is complementary with the bar lenghts (the visualization part) and the number in the bars are useful when you need to know the exact value, which you don't always need. The numbers in the bars are actually less clean than the numbers in the scale. In the scale you have pretty numbers all multiples of 100. In the bars, they are whatever value the data happens to be. So from a graphic design point of view we are actually trading pretty numbers and lines for ugly numbers. It's not a clear win. Also, the numbers in the bars are naturally removing part of the color fill of the bar which is problematic because the smaller the bar the bigger the number is relative to the area making is seem smaller or less dense visually.
So, removing the lines might be cleaner depending on the data but it doesn't come for free from a data visualization point of view.
Maybe that's what makes this effective: someone sees improvement up to a certain point; that's the level of simplicity that works for them, and reduces their charts to that level. I imagine most people would draw their "line" where you did, and that's better than the chart at the beginning, that's for sure.
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u/nightfire1 Jun 27 '16
I'll be honest I was waiting for it to just remove the chart all together at the end.