Trellis chart is an interesting way to visualize a large cohort of data. But sometimes we may get lost in the repetition of the same chart type. That is it may not be easy to make some of the cohort standing out. Th choice of chart types can impact the contrast between the members of the cohort.
Here the contrast is not at the pixel level of luminosity, but at the chart level.
Below we will use an example by Josh Preston
As part of the MakeoverMonday project, this is the initial chart that Josh shared on twitter:
The line chart shows well the trend of each sport but it is difficult to view the difference in terms of popularity. In other words, the contrast is low between the members of the cohort.
I suggested him to try an area chart version. Here is what he got:
The amount of ink in the area chart is a big visual differentiator between different sports. This created a large contrast between sports. Here we can think each box in the trellis as a pixel. It's visually striking to the viewers regarding the more popular sports, even if we look at the charts from afar.
Last but not the least, the arrows indicate upward or downward trending. I suggest that we should contrast them as well. It's hard to discern the direction of the arrows because they are small. Josh came up with light/dark grays to differentiate the two trends. This design is especially friendly to the people with color vision deficiency.
In this chart, through contrast, we enhanced the contrast in both the popularity and the trending directions.
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