The "improved" bar chart looks atrocious. If these are the articles modern designers are reading, its no wonder the state of design is what it is now.

Hah, it basically goes into denormalisation!

This certainly looks prettier than the initially shown full-fledged table structure, however I'm having more trouble reading it - it makes me slightly uncertain what text belongs to what row, and whether I properly track the row lines with my eyesight.