White space doesn’t necessarily need to be minimized – it does a very good job, when used judiciously, of guiding the viewer’s eyes towards the point you are trying to make.

“Thanks for the constructive comments, studes.

I like a lot of the improvements. The color-blind issue is a hard one to anticipate for those of us who have both green and red cones, but really we just needed to be shown some colors that will work for everyone (as you’ve done here).

I have to say, I really prefer seeing the axes, as it allows me to get at some quantitative data—how high was that great season, for example, or how many seasons, specifically, was that peak.

Aside from that, I like the suggestions. A key for me is that they be automate-able, but I (and I’m sure others) will fiddle around and see what I can do. The names at the end of the lines are a nice addition, as long as I can make one of my various graphing programs do it.
-j "

I haven’t been convinced of the gray area yet and prefer the line for average/replacement. Due to the location of the end of the lines, it makes it difficult to add the names without creating wasted space on the bottom of the graph.

I agree with Justin that automation would be key. Even though I rarely create these I’m sure others would prefer something easy to create/change.

Could someone who is color blind provide recommendations on

• background color (white/gray/other)
• necessary line-weight (I used two different above)
• color contrast (are Red-Yellow-Blue distinguishable?)

As a person who can see the whole spectrum I don’t particularly care for Studes color choices above but I don’t know how other feel.

Here is my attempt (This is in OpenOffice and requires the legend to be adjusted in paint.net ):

Also, Tom Tango was wanting it leveled and here is my attempt at that

I don’t exactly know if I like the Grey Area in the legend yet or not. It does let viewer know what they are seeing. Wording and location my not be the best.

\

Not very original, but I think making the labels and numbers bigger makes it easier to read. Also, I like putting the total WAR next to the label and making the lines bigger.

Does anybody know about a graphing program (preferably for free or with a free trial) that has a little more processing ability than Excel, but a similar interface? I just need to make a couple of scatter plot graphs, with like 200,000 rows of data, and Excel freezes up whenever I load that much data into it. I’ve been playing around with R, and am hopelessly lost.

Can anyone help?

Challenge accepted!

http://grittyandclutch.blogspot.com/2009/08/war-vs-wins-american-league-study.html

Like others, I really like the WAR “Zone,” which I guess is what we call it at this point?

I also really like the ideas to alter the legend name colors to match the lines, and to include WAR totals in the legend. I’d like to follow studes’ lead and add names at the end of each line, but I can’t figure out how to automate it and I’m too lazy to do it by hand every time in GIMP every time. The color-coding helps tremendously, anyway. I also like to sort the names (do so in “select data”) to match where the lines end up on the right.

Colors probably still aren’t great for RG-colorblind people. It’s hard to get a good set colors for five players while keeping them all colorblind-safe as well as dark enough to stand out well against a white background. Suggestions welcome.

I opted to keep both axes (I tried ditching the x-axis and just can’t live without it), and unlike probably everyone else I really prefer that my graphs be secured in a box. It’s part of my training, and it’s not going away. You don’t have to agree with me on it. :)

Everything’s pretty much automated, unless you need to add a series. Just copy from Rally’s website, sort, and paste into the form. Here’s the spreadsheet. Feel free to modify and repost.
-j