#TweakThursday 2: Ordering by Context

Last week I made my first #MakeoverMonday entry. It is about a data set of Global Temperature 1850-2016. Among all the entries, one was outstanding and won the Tableau Viz of the Day award. It is a simple yet elegant design by Neil Richards, way better than what I did. I downloaded it and tried to animate it, like what I did in my own entry.

As the year started to play, I found something strange. The marks got populated from top to bottom. I immediately realized the year axis (vertical) needs to be reversed. After the reversal, the higher temperatures and later years are on top. After all, we are supposed to raise awareness that the temperature is getting higher visually as year goes by. That's the tweak.

Although there is no right or wrong ordering, we could choose the one that sharpens the point of view we try to communicate to the audience. So there is a more suited ordering than the other depending on the context. A simple design choice may change the degree of impact significantly.

After the tweak: (click images to go to the interactive version)

The original is as follows: