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