This post continues the exploration started in Pt.1
All packages in a project, all classes in a package, and all methods in a class could benefit from a display where they are all on the same screen, in small separate graphs.
This technique fits a lot of data on a screen without making things crowded. It also scales quite well to larger numbers of categories.
The technique invites the user to make comparisons between categories, to identify differences and similarities, but it doesn’t compromise the significance of any individual time-series, as a single graph with multiple categories would do.
This is the small multiples technique from Edward Tufte’s Envisioning Information:
“Small multiple designs, multivariate and data bountiful
answer directly by visually enforcing comparisons of changes,
of the differences among objects, of the scope of alternatives.
For a wide range of problems in data presentation,
small multiples are the best design solution.”
