Makeover Monday: Crude Oil Prices Have Taken a Dive Since June 2014

For this week's Makeover Monday, I look back at Tableau Public's Viz of the Day from December 8 about the recent dip in oil prices. Take a look at the viz below and gather your own thoughts about it before reading mine below.


What can be improved?

• The title doesn't tell us anything about the visualisation itself. It's important that titles engage the readers and let them know what to expect. Or the title could provide a headline for the story.
• The title says 1986-present, yet the initial visualisation shows only 2005-2015.
• The subtitle says that the viz shows "a look at previous August prices", yet every month in shown.
• There are too many lines with too many colours. Try adding all of the years back to 1986. It really gets messy then.
• It's too hard to see the overall trend from 2005-2015. The peaks and valleys are nearly impossible to see.
• The table on the bottom right is in reverse chronological order. Why? And what does the colour on the background of the table mean? It's not necessary.