I’m thinking how would an ideal graph for 3 properties look when one of them is much bigger than the others, like A - 2, B - 10, C - 1000. Any ideas?
2 Answers
Typical solution for this case would be applying logarithmic scale to a normal graph.
In your case it's only 3 properties, so best option would be a bar chart.
With your example that would mean log(2); log(10); log(1000) == 0,3; 1; 3. Apply some coefficient to it so it's readable, and you will get something like A = 30 px; B = 100 px, C = 300 px. This way the graph will look absolutely reasonable in the UI.
Fig. a — your values, fig. b — log values.
You can find logarithmic calculator in Google. https://www.google.cz/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=logarithm+calculator
100 or so per milestone on the axis?
It strikes me that the purpose of such a graph is to show that C is overwhelmingly far and away the bigger/better/most popular/whatever.
That B is 8 bigger than 2 doesn't particularly matter at all when you're comparing them to C. 8 is negligible vs. 1000.
Having a smaller scale graph nearby with milestones of 1 or 2 to nitpick amongst the small values could be an option if their exact values are also important.
Clearly writing the values covered in the graph could help too.
Certainly don't start with 1-2-3-4 then suddenly cut away to 100s or go up to 10 and then have a big 'tear' before starting again at 991. You see these solutions sometimes and they really aren't great. Defeat the point of having a graph in masking the sheer size of the larger value.
