15 Data Visualization tips you need to know to make Effective Charts
There are many great resources available that offer tips on effective design for data visualization. But who has time to search various articles, websites, and research articles for useful tricks and hidden gems? We want to help you create great graphics right now, so we've put together this list of quick tips for you to consider when creating your next presentation.
15 quick data visualization tips
1. Before you start designing your board, stop to think about your story. What are you trying to say? Once you understand your message, the process is much easier.
2. Keep it simple. If it doesn't support your story, leave it out. You don't want to saturate your boxes with unnecessary text, colors, drop shadows, or 3D images.
3. Give your painting a strong title that clearly frames your message. Great titles make graphics more memorable and helpful.
4. Scale your board appropriately. Always take care that the scale you use on each axis must have equal intervals. This is a quick way to make sure your chart is displaying correctly.
5. Choose a font for your title, axes and legends labels that are easy to read. You want people to connect to your message quickly.
6. For the sake of transparency, always quote your sources. This builds credibility, builds trust, and gives your readers the opportunity to visit the source for more information.
7. Organize your data logically. Carefully arrange all columns and bars in order by value to make them more easy to compare at a glance.
8. Use color to draw attention to a specific part of your graphic. Bright colors quickly attract attention, helping to get the message across faster especially when you’re working on map visualization.
9. Avoid making rainbows or using mixed color palettes. They may be pretty, but they are not necessarily effective. We suggest that you choose a color for the whole picture or use a touch of color to highlight the important areas in the map visualization or visualization through graphs.
10. Do not select the data you choose to view. While you may have impressive numbers to share, you should give context and tell the full story.
11. Label your data directly, so you can make your table easier to understand quickly. Put labels next to the corresponding lines or bars if a legend takes too long to read.
12. Grid lines should be used only if they make your data easier to read. Play around with vertical and horizontal grid lines until you feel your frame is clear and concise.
13. Always use company colors, fonts, and branding when presenting data internally. This makes your graphics look polished and professional.
14. Try to avoid using pie charts to make comparisons. Pie charts are difficult to compare at a glance; it is best to use bar or column tables.
15. It's easy to get lost in a visualization when you try to do it right. Give it to a friend or colleague to see if they can understand your message in 30 seconds or less.
