A good reason to say no to grouped column (and bar) charts

#30: Panel bars

Weronika Gawarska-Tywonek
UX Collective
Published in
5 min readMay 3, 2023

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An illustration of grouped column chart where columns create an optical illusion.
Created by the author

When we use stacked columns (and bars), we force the audience to do two things simultaneously — filter out the category they want to focus on and analyze data. Once they find something interesting, they have to refocus to read the label and then… repeat the whole process. This task is difficult because we overload our cognitive load by…

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Data Visualization Designer | Trainer | Sociologist. Check my redesigned charts in weekly Incremental Improvements articles.