diff --git a/docs/content-backlog.md b/docs/content-backlog.md index f866971..335ee63 100644 --- a/docs/content-backlog.md +++ b/docs/content-backlog.md @@ -26,8 +26,9 @@ Which references are already doing work, after the first three sins: | **`huff`** | — | | **`schwabish`** | — | | **`ftvisvocab`** | — | +| **`datawrapper`** | — | -Six idle references. Each is an authority we've already endorsed on the canon +Seven idle references. Each is an authority we've already endorsed on the canon page, so a sin that leans on one is cheap to justify and strengthens the page it sits on. The backlog is ordered to bring them all in. @@ -95,7 +96,28 @@ sorted by value. **Citations:** `schwabish`, `ftvisvocab`, `swd`, `fewpies`. -### 5. The Reversed Axis — *Misleading Scales*, severity 5 +### 5. Everything Above the Bottom Floats — *Perceptual Traps*, severity 3 + +**Poke:** "Only the bottom band of a stacked chart has a straight edge to +measure against. The rest are guesses." + +In a stacked column chart, every segment except the bottom one starts at a +baseline that moves from column to column, so readers can compare the total and +the bottom series — and nothing else. The series you actually care about is +usually floating somewhere in the middle. Datawrapper's guidance is blunt about +it: bring the most important value to the bottom, because readers can only +compare values that share a baseline. + +Ubiquitous in business dashboards and highly sendable, which is why it outranks +the two below despite a milder severity. + +**Charts:** bad = stacked columns with the interesting series stranded in the +middle. Fixed = the same numbers as small multiples (or the key series pulled +out to its own zero baseline), totals preserved. + +**Citations:** `datawrapper`, `wilke`, `munzner`, `ftvisvocab`. + +### 6. The Reversed Axis — *Misleading Scales*, severity 5 **Poke:** "Down means up. You flipped the axis and the trend flipped with it." @@ -105,7 +127,7 @@ support overlaps almost entirely with sins we've already published. **Citations:** `callingbullshit`, `howchartslie`, `junkcharts`. -### 6. Squashed and Stretched — *Misleading Scales*, severity 3 +### 7. Squashed and Stretched — *Misleading Scales*, severity 3 **Poke:** "Same data, twice as tall. Aspect ratio is not a styling choice." @@ -127,10 +149,12 @@ rediscovering them: - **Counts on a choropleth instead of rates** (Cairo's set-piece) — needs TopoJSON geometry and a build-time data dependency we don't have yet. Strong candidate the moment we take that on. -- **Rainbow color scales for continuous data** (Wilke, Munzner) — buildable, but - the fixed chart needs a sequential ramp validated on `--chart-canvas` in both - themes. Do the palette work first (`dataviz` skill + its validator), then - write it. +- **Rainbow color scales for continuous data** (Wilke, Munzner, and now + Datawrapper's four-part color-scale series — the best free treatment of this + anywhere) — the canon backing is no longer the constraint. What still blocks + it is ours: the fixed chart needs a sequential ramp validated on + `--chart-canvas` in both themes. Do the palette work first (`dataviz` skill + + its validator), then this is ready to write. ## Conventions reminder diff --git a/src/lib/references.ts b/src/lib/references.ts index 652def3..26fd495 100644 --- a/src/lib/references.ts +++ b/src/lib/references.ts @@ -135,6 +135,15 @@ export const REFERENCES = { blurb: 'A browsable catalogue of common dataviz mistakes, each with a fix.', free: true, }, + datawrapper: { + authors: 'Lisa Charlotte Muth & the Datawrapper team', + title: 'Datawrapper Blog — Data Vis Do’s & Don’ts', + work: 'blog.datawrapper.de', + url: 'https://blog.datawrapper.de/category/datavis-dos-and-donts/', + kind: 'site', + blurb: 'Chart-type-by-chart-type “what to consider” posts, and the clearest free writing anywhere on choosing color scales.', + free: true, + }, junkcharts: { authors: 'Kaiser Fung', title: 'Junk Charts',