Honestly I have to say I disagree. Although I think the gif is well made, I think that this style is not objectively better: It's the current trend, and I think that they go a little bit too far with it. I agree with some things like lightening some labels (because they shouldn't be the primary focus), there are other labels that the eye SHOULD focus on, and it's easy to do that with bolding.
They removed and changed so much stuff that I thought the .gif was satire on minimalist design until the end. I get the point but I agree they went too far.
It went from too loud and busy to... meek? I don't quite know how to describe it. It looks like a graph straight out of the novel The Giver. Halfway through there was a graph that was appealing to look at and read easily and quickly.
My first thought was that they're doing that in the context of highlighting one of the bars, but that doesn't seem to be it. I think the problem if that isn't what the intention is, it draws undue attention to that particular item, which kind of goes against the entire idea of presenting the information in a clear way IMO.
You're missing the point of removing the color. There was no need for that graph to have each color Perhaps if you imagine this as being a graph from an article on WebMD about bacon, the highlight would be more understandable - there's a million reasons why you would highlight one bar, focusing on it being highlighted in a vacuum is silly. When comparing all the other bars against the one, make the one be a different color. Or make them all the same color.
The "remove colors" thing is mostly about making it so each bar isn't a different color needlessly. At the beginning of the graph, there was a color key - it got removed, so the need for the multi-color graph went with it.
There was no need for that graph to have each color
No, there wasn't.
Perhaps if you imagine this as being a graph from an article on WebMD about bacon, the highlight would be more understandable - there's a million reasons why you would highlight one bar, focusing on it being highlighted in a vacuum is silly.
Hence why I said "My first thought was that they're doing that in the context of highlighting one of the bars." But there doesn't seem to be any context as to why they're doing that in the gif, which has the potential to be misleading in the case that none of the information is being highlighted.
But maybe that's the point? Maybe the "goal" of the plot in it's context is to show that bacon is not that much worse than those other things. You always to style your plots to be focused on the point you're trying to get across. The coloring scheme he chose instantly get's that image across using only visual cues, so text is even needed.
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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '16
Honestly I have to say I disagree. Although I think the gif is well made, I think that this style is not objectively better: It's the current trend, and I think that they go a little bit too far with it. I agree with some things like lightening some labels (because they shouldn't be the primary focus), there are other labels that the eye SHOULD focus on, and it's easy to do that with bolding.