TODAY’S DATA LENS

Ten years shouldn’t look like one.

Square Today’s Data Lens card comparing the same 2010, 2011 and 2021 observations on an equally spaced categorical axis and on a continuous time axis where the ten-year gap is shown ten times wider than the one-year gap.

Observation

The three observations are 2010, 2011 and 2021. Space them equally and the one-year gap looks the same as the ten-year gap. Use a continuous date axis and the distance between points reflects the time that actually passed.

Time deserves its own scale.