Tag: because you can

This is another “because you can” rant, where I claim that the fact that you can do something doesn’t mean that you necessarily need to.

This is another post in the series Because You Can. This time, I will claim that the fact that you can put error bars on a bar chart doesn’t mean you should.

The maximum data-ink ratio principle implies that one should not use colors in their graphs if the graph is understandable without the colors. The fact that you can do something, such as adding colors, doesn’t mean you should do it. I know it. I even have a dedicated tag on this blog for that. Sometimes, however, consistent use of colors serves as a useful navigation tool in a long discussion. Keep reading to learn about the justified use of colors.

That fact that you can doesn’t mean that you should! I will say it once again.That fact that you can doesn’t mean that you should! Look at this slopegraph that was featured by “Information is Beautiful”

This is my “because you can” rant.

Seaborn is a Python visualization library based on matplotlib. It provides a high-level interface for drawing attractive statistical graphics. Look at this example from the seaborn documentation site

Here’s an old joke:

Adding legends to a graph is easy. With matplotlib, for example, you simply call plt.legend() and voilà, you have your legends. The fact that any major or minor visualization platform makes it super easy to add a legend doesn’t mean that it should be added. At least, not in graphs that are supposed to be shared with the public.