Archive for December, 2008

Good design without mercy: all unnecessary removed

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Legends are mostly unnecessary. Instead: get to the data. Look, that’s what they’ve done here for the dollar and percentage signs. And for the scale info.


Source: Wall Street Journal, 2006–11–21, p. C4

Also unnecessary: repetitions. One dollar sign and one percentage sign are enough.

You can reduce skillfully: 2000, 02, 03 etc.

Reference lines really can help sometimes. If they visually increase the relative deviations. That’s what they do in the middle graph.

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The eigth commandment is our first

Monday, December 15th, 2008

On November 18th, msn news asked me: “How well do you score in the PISA test?” I click and answer questions on caries, evolution and the Earth’s rotation. My brain hurts. Poor students.

After wind turbines and slivers of marble in vinegar: question 6 on Windows, question 7 on Word. At the end, antibiotics and dancing bees. 2 out of 9 questions on Microsoft. Peesa in Amerieca? Dear Microsoft, did you cheat?


Question 6 in the German msn PISA test: Does PISA ask for Windows?

A German one without Microsoft here. I got 16.

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