Designing Effective Visualizations
Have you ever seen a visualization that you really liked? What made it so likeable?
With new technologies that make it easy to create beautiful infographics, charts, graphs, maps, and other visuals, there has been an explosion of graphics that are supposed to tell stories. But not all visualizations are treated equally. Today, I attended IBM’s Analytics Summit, where I learned that a visualization has four key elements. The information in this post is from the notes that I took. You can also find the information on one of IBM's website.
Why Visualizations?
- Access to actionable insights.
- They enable you to see patterns – trends, gaps and outliers.
- Access to large amounts of data.
- Present information in a way that the eyes and brains can see the bigger picture.
- Tell a story.
Noah Iliinsky’s 4 Key Elements of Visualization
- Purpose – Why
- Content – What
- Structure – How
- Formatting – Everything Else
Purpose & Content
- Why are you creating the visualization?
- Who are you creating it for?
- What do they need to understand?
- What specific questions is the visualization supposed to answer?
- What data do you need to display?
- What relationship is presented in the data?
- What relationships are important?
- What data do you include and exclude from your visualization?
Structure
- How should we visualize it?
- How do you best reveal the most important data and relationships?
- The purpose and content of your visualization inform the structure. The right structure enables you to represent multiple dimensions.
Formatting
- Formatting should enhance your visualization, not detract from it. For instance, choose the right colors in your visualization.
- How should the visualization look and feel?
- How will the visualization be used?
- Shows what’s important?
- Does the formatting make it easy for people to use the visualization?
By paying attention to Noah Iliinsky’s 4 Key Elements of Visualization, you will be designing effective visualization. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Liked this post? Share it and subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more! If you’re new to the blog, visit the Start Here page for my pillar posts.
Author Bio: Avil Beckford, an expert interviewer, entrepreneur and published author is passionate about books and professional development, and that's why she founded The Invisible Mentor and the Virtual Literary World Tour to give you your ideal mentors virtually in the palm of your hands by offering book reviews and book summaries, biographies of wise people and interviews of successful people.
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