Chartjunk

Bar charts can be very simple and need not take up much space in reports. Avoid the temptation to embellish them 'artistically' to make them more visually appealing. These additions are collectively called chartjunk.

Chartjunk adds 'noise' to a bar chart and makes it harder to read the real information that is contains. Rather than adding chartjunk, draw it small or replace it with a frequency table.

A common form of chartjunk arises when each bar is drawn as a 3-dimensional object. When the resulting 3-dimensional picture is rotated, it often becomes harder to compare the heights of bars and to read off values from the axes. In particular, perspective views should be avoided.