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BEAUTIFUL VISUALIZATION
so not because they were designed to be novel, but because they were designed to be
effective; their novelty is a byproduct of effectively revealing some new insight about
the world.
Informative
The key to the success of any visual, beautiful or not, is providing access to informa-
tion so that the user may gain knowledge. A visual that does not achieve this goal has
failed. Because it is the most important factor in determining overall success, the abil-
ity to convey information must be the primary driver of the design of a visual.
There are dozens of contextual, perceptive, and cognitive considerations that come
into play in making an effective visual. Though many of these are largely outside the
scope of this chapter, we can focus on two particulars: the intended message and the con-
text of use. Keen attention to these two factors, in addition to the data itself, will go far
toward making a data visualization effective, successful, and beautiful; we will look at
them more closely a little later.
Efficient
A beautiful visualization has a clear goal, a message, or a particular perspective on
the information that it is designed to convey. Access to this information should be as
straightforward as possible, without sacrificing any necessary, relevant complexity.
A visual must not include too much off-topic content or information. Putting more
information on the page may (or may not) result in conveying more information to
the reader. However, presenting more information necessarily means that it will take
the reader longer to find any desired subset of that information. Irrelevant data is the
same thing as noise. If it’s not helping, it’s probably getting in the way.
Aesthetic
The graphical construction—consisting of axes and layout, shape, colors, lines, and
typography—is a necessary, but not solely sufficient, ingredient in achieving beauty.
Appropriate usage of these elements is essential for guiding the reader, communicat-
ing meaning, revealing relationships, and highlighting conclusions, as well as for visual
appeal.
The graphical aspects of design must primarily serve the goal of presenting informa-
tion. Any facet of the graphical treatment that does not aid in the presentation of
information is a potential obstacle: it may reduce the efficiency and inhibit the suc-
cess of a visualization. As with the data presented, less is usually more in the graphics
department. If it’s not helping, it’s probably getting in the way.