In many charts you see changing backgrounds, colors, contrasts. They should separate what is side-by-side. But they connect what is separated. The eye looks out for meaning.
The Wall Street Journal wants to point out: Which quarters are a year. This works and is stylish. But: It connects 2006 with 2008 and 2010. And 2007 with 2009.
Source: Wall Street Journal, 2010-05-07, page 9.
The WAMS doesn´t point out anything. Background bars as stripes are CI. Because: Everything gets striped. Sometimes that replaces a scale. In the picture on the right every stripe is five wide. Bars and stripes build checks. That is not stylish. In other pictures every stripe is CI. They unite what does not belong together.
Source: Welt am Sonntag,2010-02-21, page 25. From left to right: Compensation for electricity fed into the grid for renewable energy in Bn Euro, Compensation for electricity fed into the grid for solar electricity in Cent/KWh, Electricity Generation 2009 in Terawatt hours (TWh)
Diagrams and CI don´t get along well.
