Designing Data Visualizations

Book excerpt: Data visualization is an efficient and effective medium for communicating large amounts of information, but the design process can often seem like an unexplainable creative endeavor. This concise book aims to demystify the design process by showing you how to use a linear decision-making process to encode your information visually. Delve into different kinds of visualization, including infographics and visual art, and explore the influences at work in each one. Then learn how to apply these concepts to your design process. Learn data visualization classifications, including explanatory, exploratory, and hybrid Discover how three fundamental influences—the designer, the reader, and the data—shape what you create Learn how to describe the specific goal of your visualization and identify the supporting data Decide the spatial position of your visual entities with axes Encode the various dimensions of your data with appropriate visual properties, such as shape and color See visualization best practices and suggestions for encoding various specific data types