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Consider the location of your audience

  • Not all minds or eyes work the same - universal design
  • Make changes to tell your story more clearly
    • Program defaults usually not great
    • Learn how to save settings for graphs in code

What actions can you take to improve your graphs?

Three ways to design systematically

  • Highlight
  • Organize
  • "Integrate text" (context)

Make data obvious

  • Make data visually prominent
  • Use smallest effective contrast

  • Do any calculations for the viewer

    • This means plot the variable of interest

    • Show one difference variable, not two variables (before and after)

Organize your graph


"Visual complexity is distracting and should therefore never be employed to a degree that exceeds the actual complexity in the data"

- Stephen Few, 2021

  • Use common baselines wherever possible to make group comparisons
  • Use small multiples to show otherwise overlapping groups
  • Reduce interior clutter from grids, ticks, labels

Always be consistent

  • Label variables consistent with text, not data abbreviations
  • Use consistent symbology in related visualizations
  • Label directly on visuals where possible

References