Why I don't like bar charts

Pies charts are fun to use, but it's almost impossible for grown-ups to find a good reason for using them at work. So your first, safe-for-work choice is a bar chart. The boring bar chart. I don’t like bar charts.

So, here are some reasons why I don't like bar charts:

• Have to be sorted.
• Very low data density (inefficient encoding).
• Very sensitive to scale breaks.
• Forces you to use color.
• Feels cluttered.
• Accepts very few data points.
• It's difficult to compare data points in a stacked bar.
• The second axis can be misleading.