I’ve always had a fascination with the discipline of “wayfinding,” which is a term describing the ways architects, city planners, designers, and artists make it as easy as possible for people to navigate unfamiliar places. Think back to the last time you visited an amusement park, attended a sporting event or large concert, or passed through an airport or a public transportation system. These venues are visited by tens of thousands of people in a single day, many of whom have never been there before. For the enjoyment and safety of everyone, it’s critical (and, in many cases, legally required ..read more

A tip I regularly share when providing data visualization feedback is to use multiple graphs instead of packing several series into a single chart. Although it is important to be concise, people are often surprised to hear that when it comes to the number of graphs we share, fewer isn't always better. Let's consider an example. A project manager is overseeing the final stages of an effort to implement a large number of feature requests for their software. The team aims to tackle the backlog of request tickets by the end of the year. They update their progress at a bi-monthly meeting, starting ..read more

The other day I was watching the recent Apple-produced movie Napoleon, featuring Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Bonaparte and Vanessa Kirby as his first wife Joséphine.  I’m not a history buff by any means, but I have a passing knowledge of the French Revolution and of Napoleon’s brief reign in the early 19th century. While I did not necessarily know the details of each step in his various conquests and power consolidations, I was aware that the decision to invade Russia would be disastrous for Bonaparte.   How did I know this? It’s because one of the world’s most famous data visua ..read more

When you’re visualizing categorical data, sorting the bars in your chart is usually a straightforward task. Or is it? In most cases, you probably take the category with the largest value and stick that in the prime spot, the leftmost slot on the horizontal axis. Then, you proceed from left to right in descending order of value. Easy peasy.   OK, sure, sometimes you want to emphasize a metric where a lower value is better or more important, and in that case you might sort by ascending bar values instead.   Or perhaps you have a large number of categories, and you want to make it eas ..read more

Getting your audience’s attention and focusing it well are critical components of building a successful data communication. While there are several ways to capture attention, the two techniques we find most effective—and the ones we talk about the most—are:  employ words more thoughtfully, and more liberally, in support of our graphs; and apply color more sparingly but intentionally to make the important elements of your visual stand out. However, the context in which our messages are presented dramatically influences the amount of attention we need to compete for. As you can imagin ..read more

When you're tasked with putting together a presentation, it's often expected that you’ll kick things off with an overview slide. Think of it as a quick peek at what's coming up, giving everyone at the meeting the same expectations for what details you’ll eventually cover. But here's the catch: it's easy to get so caught up in building out the meat of your presentation, or to have a laundry list of other tasks that need attention, that the overview slide gets shortchanged. If you leave that slide for the last minute, treat it as something you just have to get out of the way, or just update a fe ..read more

Accessibility in graphs is more than just using colorblind-friendly palettes. It involves creating visual representations of data that are inclusive and easy to interpret for individuals with diverse needs. This includes factors such as color contrast, alternative text for images, clear labeling, and more.  In a prior guest post, Amy Cesal shared five ways to make data visualizations accessible: Add alternative text: Alt text allows those using a screen reader to understand and engage with your visual.  Employ a takeaway title: People tend to rephrase the title when asked to des ..read more

More than 100 million people tuned in to watch the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the San Francisco 49ers in last weekend’s Super Bowl, which has evolved beyond a mere sporting match to something more like an unofficial American holiday. Historically, while many tune in for the football itself, a significant number of viewers are equally interested in the commercials. The team at SWD tracks along with both the football and the advertisements, but also a third aspect: any data visualizations associated with the game. As a case in point, our friend and former colleague Elizabeth shared a graph with u ..read more

Where are your eyes drawn? That simple question is the basis of an easy test you can perform on any visual communication you create—a graph or slide, for example—to assess whether you’ve designed it effectively. Sketch or create the thing, then close your eyes and look away and look back to it. Take note of where your eyes land first (and where they go next). This is likely where your audience’s eyes will look first (and next) as well. Are you drawn clearly to the most important element? If not, you likely need to iterate. Alex expands upon and demonstrates in our Where are your eyes drawn? v ..read more

When I started using graphs early in my career and became interested in the field of data visualization and using graphs to communicate, there were only a handful of books on this topic. Fast-forward two decades, and there are many (including my own!).  This is fantastic—whether visualizing data is embedded in our job, or something pursued as an interest/hobby, we all get to be part of a growing field of knowledge. But it can also be hard to keep up, or to know which historical books remain relevant.  This month, my aim is to use our collective knowledge to build a robust data visua ..read more