Monday, June 21, 2021

Chart fail

From an Axios post about “the swoon in college enrollment.” On an iPhone, the different blues are difficult to distinguish:


On the Mac desktop, the chart is easier to read, though here you’ll have to click for a larger view.


But the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has the data in a much more readable form. Here again you’ll have to click for a larger view.


Use the whole paintbox, Axios, please.

comments: 4

Daughter Number Three said...

The use of hard-to-distinguish colors on graphs (and maps) is one of my pet peeves. It happens all the time in my local newspapers as well. Even when the colors are side by side, you can't tell them apart. No color theory skills in the creators, I guess... one of the lost skills in the burning business model of 21st century news.

Michael Leddy said...

I thought of you when I saw these charts, DN3. The different (but not different enough) shades of a single color on pandemic-related maps are a similar problem.

Fresca said...

Why are private nonprofits up (if I'm reading that right), do you know?

Michael Leddy said...

I don’t know. Maybe a combination of increased demand (if I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go the best school I can get into) and decisions to increase enrollments?