One way you could measure which one is “best” would be to measure how long it takes people to answer certain questions. E.g. “For what fraction of the 1997-2010 period did Japan spend more on healthcare per-capita than the UK?” or “what’s the average ratio of healthcare spending in Sweden vs. Greece between 2000 and 2010?” (I think there is an academic literature on these kinds of experiments, though I don’t have any references on hand.)
In this case, I think Tufte goes overboard in saying you shouldn’t use color. But if the second plot had color, I’d venture it would win most such contests, if only because the y-axis is bigger and it’s easier to match the lines with the labels. But even if I don’t agree with everything Tufte says, I still find him useful because he suggests different options and different ways to think about things.
Yeah, agreed that getting people to answer questions using the chart, and measuring their speed and accuracy is the key objective metric of design quality.
Also, I like it when both color and line styles are used together. Keeps it clear for colorblind people, and makes it extra clear for colorsighted people.
Choosing colors should be done carefully to balance contrast with the background color. And can be done in such a way as to be visible even to the most common colorblindness types.
One way you could measure which one is “best” would be to measure how long it takes people to answer certain questions. E.g. “For what fraction of the 1997-2010 period did Japan spend more on healthcare per-capita than the UK?” or “what’s the average ratio of healthcare spending in Sweden vs. Greece between 2000 and 2010?” (I think there is an academic literature on these kinds of experiments, though I don’t have any references on hand.)
In this case, I think Tufte goes overboard in saying you shouldn’t use color. But if the second plot had color, I’d venture it would win most such contests, if only because the y-axis is bigger and it’s easier to match the lines with the labels. But even if I don’t agree with everything Tufte says, I still find him useful because he suggests different options and different ways to think about things.
Yeah, agreed that getting people to answer questions using the chart, and measuring their speed and accuracy is the key objective metric of design quality. Also, I like it when both color and line styles are used together. Keeps it clear for colorblind people, and makes it extra clear for colorsighted people. Choosing colors should be done carefully to balance contrast with the background color. And can be done in such a way as to be visible even to the most common colorblindness types.
Yes! But not just time, you should also compare them on accuracy.