[moneydance] Graphing Awesomeness

[Edward Reid]

At 21:32 01/03/07 -0700, Hans Derycke wrote:
>- the y-axis of graphs is now shifted to a value closer to the lowest
>y-value, instead of being stuck at zero.

Those with some experience in statistics and presentation consider this a 
Very Bad Idea, because it emphasizes changes which are of little 
significance. Without even having looked at it, this comment leads me to 
assign ten demerits to the new graphs.

>For instance, if your net
>worth graph varies between 1,000,000 and 1,020,000, you'll see every
>painful nuance of that variation, instead of a largely blank screen
>with a wiggle at the top

But in this example, the variation is +/- 1%. In fact that IS just a wiggle 
at the top of a largely unchanged situation. Making that +/-1% variation 
look like an earthquake is bad presentation.

There are times when it is appropriate to emphasize small changes, but 
arbitrarily shifting the y-origin isn't the way to do it. Generally it 
should be done with a broken graph, showing the zero point and an indicator 
(such as a zigzag line) that part of the graph is omitted. Automatically 
shifting the y-origin without even a user request is worse than bad.

Edward
-- 
Art works by Melynda Reid: http://paleo.org