[DATA VIZ] Line-(graph)-apalooza

[amycesal]

Please forgive my terrible attempt at making a Chicago lollapalooza pun.

This is the type of time series line graph data that comes across my desk most often. If there's other common data that y'all see, let me know.

Monthly complaint reports, credit card vs. over all. data from between launch and September 2015

Month	Credit card	Grand Total
11-Jul	519	566
11-Aug	1,840	2,191
11-Sep	1,732	2,249
11-Oct	1,755	2,195
11-Nov	1,749	2,323
11-Dec	1,620	3,604
12-Jan	1,455	4,241
12-Feb	1,439	4,468
12-Mar	1,624	7,561
12-Apr	1,353	6,901
12-May	1,667	9,095
12-Jun	1,979	9,567
12-Jul	1,796	8,341
12-Aug	1,581	8,570
12-Sep	1,257	6,929
12-Oct	1,695	8,649
12-Nov	1,394	8,145
12-Dec	1,309	8,386
13-Jan	1,437	12,775
13-Feb	1,442	11,238
13-Mar	1,615	11,906
13-Apr	1,507	11,700
13-May	1,368	10,982
13-Jun	1,311	11,090
13-Jul	1,276	13,767
13-Aug	1,347	15,429
13-Sep	1,347	17,142
13-Oct	1,383	15,377
13-Nov	1,245	16,757
13-Dec	1,326	15,694
14-Jan	1,539	20,664
14-Feb	1,632	21,020
14-Mar	1,666	22,483
14-Apr	1,665	22,437
14-May	1,504	20,032
14-Jun	1,498	20,589
14-Jul	1,569	22,278
14-Aug	1,694	22,394
14-Sep	1,550	20,748
14-Oct	1,435	20,632
14-Nov	1,359	18,403
14-Dec	1,456	18,850
15-Jan	1,519	19,968
15-Feb	1,782	20,380
15-Mar	1,894	23,748
15-Apr	1,758	22,511
15-May	1,825	22,301
15-Jun	1,881	23,180
15-Jul	1,975	26,488
15-Aug	1,965	25,653
15-Sep	1,976	23,354

[bfongdata]

[Scotchester]

Requesting some input to this issue from @cfpb/dada. Thanks!

– The Eye 55 Grooming Crew

[amycesal]

@nataliafitzgerald and @ajbush did a lot of work with line graphs for Consumer credit trends.

Take a look at: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/consumer-credit-trends/credit-cards/origination-activity/

Some of the main things are:

• using color AND line weight to differentiate between lines
• using a dashed line to show projected data
• having a CSV of the raw data to improve transparency and accessibility.