Bad Graphs!

Stephen Few has seen enough bad graphs. He says:

I’m on a mission! No, I didn’t hear the voice of God, but I have heard the voices of countless people crying out in frustration for the data they desperately need to do their jobs, presented to them clearly, simply, efficiently and meaningfully. The current state of data visualization — the use of graphs to display information for the purposes of sense-making and communication — would be amusing if it weren’t so tragic. Most business graphs are poorly designed, many to the point of misinformation.

He goes on to take a very poorly designed graph at sas.com and turn it into a much simpler and more easily interpreted graph. Along the way, he gives some very good advice for anyone wanting to create a graph from their data.