Best Practices for Creating a Compelling Visualization

Lori Williams, MPH, PhDTableau Software

April 2012

Visualization Best Practices

• Two Most Important Decisions• Data Storytelling• Choosing Chart Types• Make Your Viz Shine• Test Your Viz• Resources

Two Most Important Decisions

What’s Your Goal?Who’s It For?

GoalsTell a Story

Let people discover

Make a statement

General Public?

Politically Engaged Public

Wonks and Experts

Other Groups

Data Storytelling

Savvy Matters More than Size

Supports Your Goal

Possible with Your Data

Your Audien

ce Cares

Give Users a GuideInverted Pyramid

Story Form

Choosing Chart Types

When to Use Chart TypesBar - Find highs

and lows

Line – See a trend

Pie – general sense of proportions

Map – show geographic data

Table – for exact numbers

What to look out for

Pies not good for ranking

One value is MUCH bigger

Too many categories

When to Use Chart Types Part 2Scatter – find relationships

Gantt – activities or events over time

Bullet– show progress towards a goal

Heat map– show hot spots concisely

Tree maps, Markimekko

– for hierarchical data

Network diagrams – show relationships

Making Your Viz Shine

What Are the Elements of a Viz?

Title

Filter

Subtitle

Share button

s

Credits

Logo

You can’t see – TooltipInteraction

Chart 1

Chart 1

Data!

Before You Start Creating

Choose Your Numbers Wisely

Supports Your Goal

Makes Sense

for Your Data

Be Acceptable to Your

Audience

Language

Language

Language

Titles and Text

Algerian, Harlow Solid, RoseWood Std

Arial, Calibri, Adobe Caslon Pro, Helvetica

ColorSupport your goals

Work in B & W

Is culturally specific

Take advantage of expectations

Test Your Viz

Why Test?

http://maplight.org/content/72990

Tableau Public

• http://www.tableausoftware.com/public

Resources

• Designing Data Visualizations* by Iliinsky

• Now You See it by Few • Visual Display of Quantitative Informatio

n by Tufte

• Flowing Data blog• Which Chart or Graph Is Right for You• Juice Analytics Chart Chooser*discount code cards

Tableau helps people see and understand data.

Email: lwilliams@tableausoftware.comTwitter: @VisualLori - @TableauPinterest:

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