What Makes a Good Visualization?
There are multiple aspects to what makes a good visualization:
- Most importantly, the visualization should be self-explanatory and visually appealing. To make it self-explanatory, use a legend, descriptive labels for your x-axis and y-axis, and titles.
- A visualization should tell a story and be designed for your audience. Before creating your visualization, think about your target audience; create simple visualizations for a non-specialist audience and more technical detailed visualizations for a specialist audience. Think about a story to tell with your visualization so that your visualization leaves an impression on the audience.
Common Design Practices
- Use colors to differentiate variables/subjects rather than symbols, as colors are more perceptible.
- To show additional variables on a 2D plot, use color, shape, and size.
- Keep it simple and don’t overload the visualization with too much information.
