Data visualisation: in defence of bad graphics Well, not really - but there is a backlash gathering steam against web data visualisations. Is it deserved?

quardian reporting:
Are most online data visualisations, well, just not very good?
It's an issue we grapple with a lot - and some of you may have noticed a recent backlash against many of the most common data visualisations online.
Poor Wordle - it gets the brunt of it. It was designed as an academic exercise that has turned into a common way of showing word frequencies (and yes, we are guilty of using it) - an online sensation. There's nothing like ubiquitousness to turn people against you.
In the last week alone, New York Times senior software architect Jacob Harris has called for an end to word clouds, describing them as the "mullets of the Internet". Although it has used them to great effect here.
While on Poynter, the line is that "People are tired of bad infographics, so make good ones"...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/oct/17/data-visualisation-visualization?fb=native