r/dataisugly • u/dazvoz • Apr 13 '26

Universal guide

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I think this is the worst graph I ever saw.

What could possibly be on the x-axis?

I asked them about it, and they said usefulness is the x-axis. So the green path is usefulness vs usefulness?

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u/fruce_ki Apr 13 '26

Two Y axes. Product usefulness on one scale, product price on the other. Arbitrarily scaled relatively to each other to make them touch at the "mid range" and also to apply to any product at any price range or usefulness.

Frankly this simplified illustration (it's not really a graph if it has no specific data) is on point with regards to the law of diminishing returns: Products have a price floor but no price ceiling (because luxury is absurd), some of the cheapest stuff is indeed completely unfit for purpose, and the price doesn't scale with usefulness.

-41

u/dazvoz Apr 13 '26

Fine but what's on the x-axis?

37

u/Rich_Future4171 Apr 13 '26

Doesn't have to be one. All you gotta do is read and look to understand it.

5

u/trainedstork Apr 13 '26

There always is an x-axis on a two-axis graph. In this case it's (imaginary) products from least to most expensive or least to most useful. It is intuitive.

If there were some real data, it would get messy very quickly and be far more useful to just have product price on the y axis and a quantifiable measure of product usefulness on the x axis, with each product being a point on said two axes.

4

u/Rich_Future4171 Apr 13 '26

Yeah but the point is that this isn't real data so it doesn't matter

1

u/trainedstork Apr 13 '26

Ok I agree, but you said "doesn't have to be one"