U5.04

Sorting as the strongest readability device

Cards in this group · 5

  1. U5.04.1Nominal categories have no natural order, so whatever order a chart shows was somebody's choice
  2. U5.04.2Sorting a bar chart by value hands readers the ranking and the extremes for free
  3. U5.04.3Age bands or rating tiers should keep their natural order even if sorting by value looked tidier
  4. U5.04.4Side-by-side charts only support comparison across panels if they all share the same category order
  5. U5.04.5An unstated sort order leaves readers guessing, and they often guess alphabetical when it wasn't