Hi ...
We made a design decision a long, long time ago that favours more space for graphs over including legends. For the same reason we don't include graph headers and try to condense the legends as much as possible.
If we included an axis label we'd have to shrink the graphical area of the graph to fit on the 4-graph row, giving even less data to the user. Not to mention the fact that the information already exists, directly beneath where a label would go, as the first part of the first line of the legend. Did you actually read the graph before you complained?
http://alpha.memetic.org/~adama/snaps/u0by7z69dd.png
This decision was made long ago, and we will indeed get irritated at people who question basic design aspects without actually thinking about
whether what they are complaining about makes any sense at all.
Here is an example where I got a little bit confused first and therefore tried to make my suggestion. It is the disk usage popup of one of my servers:
http://www.abload.de/img/observium_axishjkxm.png
Without actually clicking the affected disk and enabling legend you do not know whether the y axis shows the total available diskspace, or a portion of it, or the percentage.
In some areas it is hard to tell what the actual unit of the y axis is at all:
Look at this: http://abload.de/img/observium_processorwrrj8.png
It is the processor usage a hp procurve switch. Is the y axis showing percentage or load factor? You have to guess that it is the percentage even when you have enabled the legend.
I fully understand design decisions. I do them also daily. I don't want to ruin the design in any way. I just kindly asked to add maybe an option for these graphs to add a description for the y axis even if you would have to sacrifice some pixels or would have to enlarge the popup a little bit.
I suppose you want us to put AVERAGE:, MAXIMUM: or MINIMUM: in front of every average number to, right, because otherwise how could you possibly
ever know that the number is an average without guessing?
The min,max,avg would be nice to have in the detailed graph view (in my case when you have clicked the disk and enable legend). I would not need it in the popups. In some areas min/max/avg are already present (as you can see it from the processor snapshot I have linked in).
Roland