Graphics Best Practices
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This document summarizes graphics best practices for data visualization. It discusses establishing hierarchy, minimizing non-data ink known as "chartjunk", finding the smallest effective difference between data groups, and accounting for multivariate data. Specific chart types like line charts, bar charts, and pie charts are examined as well as displaying numbers, scales, and error bars. Guidelines are provided for choosing colors, formatting, and addressing color blindness.
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Graphics Best Practices
- 1. Lunch and Learn Graphics Best Practices Anna Jursik, Lester Shen, and Jenny Edwards, March 13, 2013
- 2. Lunch and Learn: Graphics Best Practices General Principles
- 5. Stick with established patterns Page 5
- 6. Minimize chartjunk Minimize chartjunk Page 6
- 7. What is the smallest effective difference? Find the smallest effective difference Page 7
- 8. Account for a multivariate world Page 8
- 9. Post hoc ergo propter hoc Page 9 Courtesy of Michael Blasnik
- 10. Lunch and Learn: Graphics Best Practices Displaying Numbers
- 11. Averages + Mean + Median + Mode Page 11
- 12. Averages Page 12
- 13. Averages Page 13
- 14. Averages Page 14
- 20. Reading in City Schools 2nd Grade Page 20
- 24. Show Me the Data Page 24
- 25. Show Me the Data Page 25
- 26. Chart Types, Color, and Formatting
- 27. What type of chart to use? What Type of Chart to Use? + Line Chart: Show Trends Page 27
- 28. What type of chart to use? What Type of Chart to Use? + Column or Bar: Discrete Repeating Units Page 28
- 29. What type of chart to use? What Type of Chart to Use? + Pie Chart: Emphasize A single value, or extremes (Large or Small Values) Page 29
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- 33. Better choice: Radial Treemap Page 33
- 34. Legends are overused Page 34
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- 36. 200 Peak at 172 Days 180 Condos 160 140 120 100 80 60 Single Family 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Page 36
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- 41. Use legends if space is tight Make sure legend order reads in the same order as data, and use color to assist Page 41
- 42. General Color and Format Rules: Dont overuse: maintain smallest effective difference Use color and formatting to group similar types, to show scale or trends Reserve different formatting dimensions to highlight what you care about Page 42
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- 44. US Injuries + Fatalities per Billion Passenger-Miles (2002-2004) Page 44
- 45. Page 45
- 46. Portlands Transportation Carbon Footprint Page 46
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- 50. 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1 2 3 4 Page 50
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- 53. Use tick marks when you want to show discrete measurements Page 53
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- 57. Create a logical order Page 57
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Editor's Notes
- #3: graphics are a communication tool, not ornamental organize and communicate key informationIf you use them effectively, youll tell the story you want to tell to your audience If you use them ineffectively, you could distract actually distract from the data
- #4: Cant assume they have the same level of knowledge, interest, or commitment as youGraphics should make it easier for the audience to understand and take interest in the data or information
- #5: eyes are drawn to big and bold and brightnon-linear: bounce around, can't assumethe viewer will look through everything in orderProvide handholds but do include all the data for curious/nit picky audience members
- #6: stick w/established symbols and conventionsrepetition: look for patterns we've learned maps: symbols consistent; capitol cities star, cities bold, lakes and rivers blue, interstates red
- #7: Think about how
- #9: Huge amounts of data, limited amount of spacePaper is two-dimensional, so
- #10: after this, therefore because of thisCorrelation not causationFalse causationCoincidental causation
- #12: Mean arithmetic mean, standard average the sum of all measurements divided by the number of observations in the datasetMedian middle value, half the population is above and half is belowMode most likely value
- #15: Median income ~$50kMode $15k-$20k
- #31: Careful with Pie charts: Too hard to follow
- #32: More acceptable even with a lot of categories. Because color is used well, labeled. They start with the largest value and go around clockwise. But the major take away message will be that TV is big.
- #34: Too hard to interpret, label all the values. (Radial as treemap)
- #36: They make your reader do extra work, and they cant focus on the trends when eyes dart back and forth
- #38: Dont use legend if you are plotting the same values
- #41: Here, there are multiple labels, so a simple legend is good.
- #45: Many Errors here:Dont use 3-dUse ascending colorsDont need graphicDont need decimal
- #47: Use of 3-d Do we need both dimensions?
- #48: Use color to distinguish time; use recognizable colors if they apply
- #49: In this case color shows geography
- #54: Use tick marks , minimize grid lines, but horizontal ones are helpful. Most helpful for lines (to show trends)
- #55: Numbering when it isnt too much data.
- #56: Use shading bars
- #57: Use shading bars. Also dont be afraid to grey out a lot of things.
- #59: Using trend lines