Quick: What’s the second-tallest bar in this chart?
I don’t know, either. It’s obvious that Germany scores highest. But second place remains a mystery: Is it Spain or Italy? (Or are they tied?) Without labels on the bars, it’s impossible to tell.
You might think leaving data labels off your charts makes them “cleaner” — but in fact, it just deprives your readers of useful information. Data labels make your readers them smarter.
Question 2: Does the United States or Australia score higher in this chart? You can probably answer this one. The US appears to rank slightly higher than Australia. But if you’re like me, you had to glance back and forth several times to figure that out. Data labels also save your readers time.
Adding labels to your data isn’t just a meaningless rule; it’s essential to a chart’s very purpose. To paraphrase Edward Tufte’s first principle of data-ink: Above all else, show the damned data.
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