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Why did the graphs change?
Before I begin, I'm going to preface this with the fact that I am obsessive about graphs, and spend a lot of time thinking about the appropriate graph to show. So keep in mind I probably come off far more serious than it really is...
I loved the old RescueTime graphs. My important metric is each-day — so I loved being able to log into the dashboard and see a bar chart showing me the 'working' tag, 'browsing' tag and total time spent each day. It was glorious. The bar graphs were correct — they aggregated time spent in a vertical graphic, grouped by each non-numerical day (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...).
But now we've got line graphs. Why the change? These line graphs are much worse. A line graph should be used when you have two incremental axis which to graph by. Velocity vs Time, for example. Velocity increments: 0mph, 1mph, 2mph... etc. Time increments: 0s, 1s, 2s. When you shade the area under the Velocity vs Time graph, you get a meaningful metric - mph*s — distance. But in the context of RescueTime, it makes no sense. There is no incremental difference between Monday and Tuesday (what is Monday and a half? Or Tuesday.622 ?). The area under the curve also become useless, day*s or time squared.
This is only exasterbated by the fact that the points on the line graph are meaningless as well! If I follow the twhirl graph shown below, I'm lead to believe I spent 7 hours (!) on Wednesday on twhirl. The reality is that I spent 1h 44m on whirl. Increasing the frustration, the slopes between the lines are meaningless! You'll see on Monday -> Tuesday it looks like I spent *more* time on whirl (slope is positive). The reality is that it was actually negative by quite a bit (-26%). All of this traces back to the fact that you've forced bar graphs into line graphs.
Another startling thing is that by the screenshot above you'd be lead to believe I spend most of my time on twhirl -- when the reality is I spend most of my time on Textmate (notice the *bar* graphs to the right that reveal the truth).
Please consider reverting them :) It was much, much better.
I loved the old RescueTime graphs. My important metric is each-day — so I loved being able to log into the dashboard and see a bar chart showing me the 'working' tag, 'browsing' tag and total time spent each day. It was glorious. The bar graphs were correct — they aggregated time spent in a vertical graphic, grouped by each non-numerical day (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...).
But now we've got line graphs. Why the change? These line graphs are much worse. A line graph should be used when you have two incremental axis which to graph by. Velocity vs Time, for example. Velocity increments: 0mph, 1mph, 2mph... etc. Time increments: 0s, 1s, 2s. When you shade the area under the Velocity vs Time graph, you get a meaningful metric - mph*s — distance. But in the context of RescueTime, it makes no sense. There is no incremental difference between Monday and Tuesday (what is Monday and a half? Or Tuesday.622 ?). The area under the curve also become useless, day*s or time squared.
This is only exasterbated by the fact that the points on the line graph are meaningless as well! If I follow the twhirl graph shown below, I'm lead to believe I spent 7 hours (!) on Wednesday on twhirl. The reality is that I spent 1h 44m on whirl. Increasing the frustration, the slopes between the lines are meaningless! You'll see on Monday -> Tuesday it looks like I spent *more* time on whirl (slope is positive). The reality is that it was actually negative by quite a bit (-26%). All of this traces back to the fact that you've forced bar graphs into line graphs.
Another startling thing is that by the screenshot above you'd be lead to believe I spend most of my time on twhirl -- when the reality is I spend most of my time on Textmate (notice the *bar* graphs to the right that reveal the truth).
Please consider reverting them :) It was much, much better.
I’m a bit bothered
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Inappropriate?I can honestly say I find the line graphs frustrating and hard to read. I prefer the bars as well for fast at-a-glance views of where my time is going.
Can we switch between views, perhaps?
I’m frustrated
